


If no one notices you, are you even still there?

by jaspeada0928



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, BAMF Lance (Voltron), Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Black Paladin Keith (Voltron), Blue Paladin Allura (Voltron), F/F, F/M, Gen, Hurt Lance (Voltron), Injury, Insecure Lance, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Keith needs to control his temper, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron)-centric, Lance is captured by Lotor and his generals, Lance loves cats, Lance pilots Black, Lance uses a sword, Lance's loyalties are divided, Langst, Lotor uses skin care products, M/M, Mute Lance, Mute!Lance, Self-Esteem Issues, Shiro will be mad when he finds out, and shares them with Lance, red paladin lance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-14 07:24:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 68,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11778246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaspeada0928/pseuds/jaspeada0928
Summary: A hit to the throat was all it took for his world to finally crumble down. Lance is left mute after an injury during a battle and has to wait some weeks for the swelling to disappear.The team is still trying to find Shiro and form alliances with the freed civilizations. Everyone seems to have something to work on, everyone except him; Voltron needs a new leader and Black a new pilot. Making mistakes during missions is not something they can afford, and not something the paladins are willing to let past.And Lance realizes that his chatter and jokes were the only thing stopping him from disappearing.





	1. Hit to The Throat

**Author's Note:**

> So this is based on this post on tumblr: http://imyaslavie.tumblr.com/post/159283119329/during-a-mission-lance-gets-his-vocal-cords-hurt , which I just couldn't get out of my head, and well, here is this.

They knew something could go wrong, it was always a possibility. But that mission wasn’t particularly difficult, or dangerous. Just breaking into a small lonely ship to see if Pidge could get some useful information. About Shiro, Matt, the empire. Anything. As long as it meant some progress.

  
It didn’t start well. Keith was obviously upset and was fighting ruthlessly, he went to some part of the ship that was far away from the controls; Hunk seemed nervous about something; Pidge was anxious to get to the information; Lance was overconfident and too relaxed for a mission; and their leader was gone. But some sentries were no challenge for them.

Or so they thought.

  
Hunk and Lance followed Pidge to the controls, finding sentries in the way. Apparently it was a ship with supplies that had no need of living soldiers. They made it to the room and Pidge started searching the system, Hunk stayed outside in the hall and Lance covered Pidge's back. The room had a wall stocked with metal containers and the usual holographic controls on the opposite side.

Some minutes passed by in silence until there was a noise outside, Hunk barely had time to dodge. “What…?!”  
A sentry, sightly bigger than the others and wielding a sword, broke into the room and attacked Lance, who was nearer to the entrance.

He raised his shield and tried to get far away enough to shoot, but there just wasn’t enough room. Pidge then reacted and attacked the enemy with her bayard, Lance tried to shoot but couldn’t do it without risking Pidge. She managed to hit the sword and throw it away but the sentry continued fighting hand to hand combat. It was like nothing they had ever faced before, the other sentries were nothing compared to that one.

Pidge put her shield up and the sentry hit it with enough strength to make her fall. Hunk was standing at the entrance looking like he had also been trying to find a way to shoot.  
Not knowing what else to do, Lance tried tackling the sentry, which proved to be significantly less painful than he had expected but not very effective. It only stumbled a couple steps and then elbowed Lance exactly in the spot of his neck that was uncovered by the paladin armor.

He felt something break.

Lance collapsed and his head bounced on the floor, the helmet preventing head injury.  
Hunk finally found an angle to blast the sentry’s head off, and the green and yellow paladins turned to look at the unconscious boy in the floor.

“That probably crushed his windpipe,” Pidge whipered. “ Keith, get back to the ship now!” she almost yelled.

  
“What happened?” came Keith’s answer.

  
“Is everything alright, paladins?” asked Allura.

  
“Everyone shut up. Keith, go back NOW. I need to make an emergency procedure. We’ll go back in some minutes.” Without waiting for an answer, she turned the communication off.

Pidge walked to the door, looked it, and turned to Hunk. “Help me find a knife and something like a tube. We have to do it really fast or he’ll stop breathing.”  
They both ran to the wall with the containers and started searching desperately. After checking four, they each found what they needed.

“I got the knives.” Hunk handed one to Pidge.

  
“I found something that looks like an IVS line, it’ll do the job.”

 

Then she ran to were Lance was lying and took a calming breath. The knife made a small cut a little below Lance’s Adam's apple and Pidge put her finger inside to open the slit. She cut the IVS line, as it was too long, and sticked it the into the cut. She held her breath.

And Lance started breathing again.

Both her and Hunk let out a relieved sigh.

“Oh, God, he’s breathing.” Hunk himself hadn’t turned off the communication, so from the other side, Keith’s alarmed voice came.

  
“What do you mean he’s breathing?!”

 

With shaky hands Pidge turned on the communication on her own helmet. “We’re going back to the ship, have one of the pods ready.”

  
“Of course.” Allura answered calmly, though it was evident she too was worried.

 

The green paladin turned to Hunk. “That’ll stop him from dying for a while, but we need to get him to a pod, can you carry him?”

  
“Yeah.” Keeping his cool was proving very hard.

  
“Try to not move him too much," Pidge added. Hunk nodded.

 

Carrying the blue paladin bridal style, he followed Pidge to their lions and softly put the boy on Yellow’s floor.

 

* * *

 

They carried Lance to the open pod while the whole team followed, worry increasing by every second as they saw more of Lance’s state. But everyone managed to stop themselves from asking questions until Lance was in the pod and Coran adjusted the settings.

Pidge slumped to the floor.

  
“What happened?” asked the princess, softly.

  
“There was this advanced sentry that knew hand to hand combat and it elbowed him on the throat. I think his windpipe was crushed. He couldn’t breath so I did an emergency tracheotomy. My father taught me how. But, I had only made it with CPR dummies before...”

 

There was silence as everyone took the information in.

 

“You did an impressive job, Pidge. You saved Lance’s life, I think I’m correct when I say that you are the only one that could have made the procedure,” Allura complimented, resting a hand on the younger girl’s shoulder.

 

Looking at the ground, Pidge whispered, “He got like this saving me.” But it was loud enough for everyone to hear. Their frowns deepened, and in unison, they turned to look at the pod.

  
The princess smiled softly at the girl and at Hunk. “I think you two should go rest, we’ll take it from here.” Pidge just nodded and left the room, Hunk turned around to look worriedly at his friend before leaving as well.

  
“Coran, can the pod heal him?” The princess asked.

  
Keith’s eyes widened, that’s why she wanted Lance’s closest friends to leave. He turned to look at Coran who had sorrow in his eyes.  
“I don't know, princess. I have never encountered this situation before; Altean bodies have either enough resistance to not suffer such injuries, or the hit had so much strength that it resulted in death. And even if he survived, there could be lasting consequences.”  
Keith unconsciously raised a hand to touch his own throat and gulped.

Allura regained her composure and spoke with a more confident voice. “I have to open a wormhole to get us out of here before reinforcement arrives. Coran, could you make sure Hunk and Pidge eat and recover from the mission?” The man nodded. “Keith, could you stay here and guard the pod?” The red paladin nodded as well.  
“We must keep going, we cannot let this to weaken us. I’ll send someone to guard later so you too can rest.” She concluded, staring at Keith. Then both her and Coran left, leaving Keith alone in the silence.

The red paladin felt guilty, if he had stayed with the group maybe this wouldn’t have happened. But the days kept passing and there was still no sign of Shiro, and he couldn’t help but feel like no one else was searching for him as much as himself. It had felt good to have something to get distracted with and he had gotten carried away, and that mistake may cost them a teammate’s life.

He walked around the room for a while, he stopped a couple times in front of the glass to look at the blue paladin, so still he looked dead. And finally, he sat on the ground, tiredness finally setting in.  
It was not long until Allura arrived saying she had gotten them to safety and that she would be the one to stay for the ‘night’ shift.  
So Keith left to his room, got out of the armor, and ignoring Coran’s arguments about having to eat something, tried to sleep.

 

* * *

 

Another day passed and the team was growing restless. They all had taken shifts in front of the pod, they had rested, eaten, and they all felt like there was nothing that could be done. Pidge had examined the information she had found but the only thing there was a list of the supplies the ship carried. During dinner, while Coran took the shift, Hunk tried to raise the mood, but needless to say, it didn’t work.  
The next day, somewhen after breakfast, they headed to the pod and found Hunk, holding a dizzy Lance, who looked incredibly relieved when he saw they were there.

Lance’s throat was a dark shade of purple, and it looked like it hurt. Coran, made a general heath check. Everyone was starting to think nothing had turned out wrong, until Coran asked Lance to describe from one to ten how much pain he was feeling.

The blue paladin opened his mouth as if to say something and then closed it, looking confused, he tried again, only to close it again. Lance looked at Coran with panic in his eyes, and the man asked what was wrong. No answer came and that was when everyone realized what was happening.

“Can you not speak, Lance?” The princess’ eyes had widened, and she had the same shocked expression as everyone else. Lance shook his head.

 

Coran spoke up. “I need to examine him more throughly, everyone please leave.”

  
They all waited outside, no one daring to speak.  
Coran came out looking grim. “Keith, can you take Lance to his room? Make sure he bathes and eats something.” Surprised, the red paladin nodded and went into the room. He went down the hallway, followed by Lance, who was clenching his fists and breathing heavily.

The man turned to the remaining members of the team.

“His vocal cords were damaged. The pod can heal them, but we will need to wait at least fourteen quintents, maybe more, for them to recover naturally, we can't risk him being in the pod so much without knowing how it will affect his human physiology.”

 

“So two or three weeks.” Pidge confirmed.

 

“Lance already knows. I’ll make sure he is present at dinner,” the man finished.

 

“I expect all of you to be there,” the princess said.

 

* * *

 

Keith found himself sitting at Lance’s bed. Said boy was taking a shower.  
He was grateful he hadn’t refused because he had no idea what he could have done to convince him, he wasn’t exactly the most talkative or persuasive person. To be honest, Keith didn’t know why Coran had chosen him to take care of Lance.

The blue paladin came out of the bathroom wearing his usual clothes, and with his hair dry. He looked at Keith and opened his mouth before closing it again. Lance shrugged and made as if he was eating a sandwich and then raised an eyebrow, waiting for an answer from Keith.  
Once again, the half galra was grateful that he didn’t have to convince Lance to eat. Keith thought that the blue paladin was acting impressively composed considering the situation.  
“It’s dinner time, and I’m kind of hungry too.”  
So they went to the mess hall, were everyone was already eating their meals, prepared by Hunk as always.

  
“Boys! I was going to go looking for you in a few ticks!” Coran greeted.

 

They sat in their usual spots, and for a moment, everything seemed to be back to normal. Well, as normal as it usually was with Shiro still missing. Then it became evident that everyone was tense and that there was way too much silence.

“So, Lance, have you tried speaking recently?” Allura tried, but as soon as the words left her mouth she knew she shouldn’t have asked. All the attention was on Lance.

 

For a moment, they expected him to just say something like, “ Yeah, maybe it was just temporary.”  
But all hopes were crushed when he opened his mouth and then closed it again. He sighed, and then shook his head while biting his lip.

 

“Oh, Lance, I’m sorry,” the princess apologized.

 

He just smiled and waved his hand telling her not to worry.

“Oh, right!” Everyone turned to look at Pidge “So I had this idea. I can make you a tablet so you can write and It’ll speak .” The boy smiled at her and nodded eagerly.

There wasn’t much talking after that, but the tension had dissapeared. Everyone seemed focused on eating and only Keith noticed how Lance opened his mouth twice and then clenched his fists under the table.

 

“You know, I was thinking, at least we’ll get some peace for a while, no more chatter and dumb jokes,” Pidge joked.

  
“And I’ll finally get some rest from the flirting, huh?” Allura joked too. Everyone seemed to find it funny so Lance did his best to glare at the girls and look mockingly offended. They didn’t need to know it had really hurt him. It did every time, but he had gotten used to it. That time it hurt more because he didn’t find it funny at all that he had lost his voice.

Lance was the first to stand up and wave goodbye. No one stayed in the room long after that. And only Keith seemed to notice, once again, that no one stood up from Shiro’s seat.

 

* * *

 

The next day, Lance went to the pool and tried his best to ignore the aching on his throat, the purple was a little lighter, but it still looked pretty bad.  
Every time he encountered one of the others his mouth opened, to greet them, get their attention, or ask them what they were doing. But then, he just decided to walk away before they noticed him, as they all looked busy.

Before dinner, he went to look for his best friend, who was, as always, at the kitchen.

“Hey, Lance.”  
Lance caught himself on time from embarrassingly opening and closing his mouth like a fish. So he nodded and smiled.  
He pointed at the food and then tilted his head to the side.  
“Oh, I’m trying to make a salad with the vegetable thingies left from that planet with the yetis.” Lance nodded to show that he remembered, they had freed it two days before the accident.  
“So, how are you feeling, bro?”  
No point in taking down Hunk’s good mood. He smiled and raised a thumb.  
“You know, I’m sure you’ll be good as new after the pod.”  
He nodded. No point in sharing his insecurities with Hunk.  
The yellow paladin turned around to keep working on the food.  
“So, you think this looks good?”  
Lance opened his mouth. “ _Totally, I don’t know how you manage to turn all this alien stuff into nice meals,"_  he wanted to say. No sound came out.  
Hunk turned around, “Oh, man, I forgot, sorry,” he apologized.  
Lance just waved at hand.  
“You should go to the dinning room, I’ll be there in a minute.”  
Lance nodded and left.

  
Dinning was difficult, not only did it hurt a bit every time he swallowed, but it also hurt every time he opened his mouth to say something, a joke, an opinion, and nothing came out. He left early, the chatter that accompanied meals that he loved suddenly turning overwhelming.  
He felt somehow trapped, trapped without being able to say, comment, express.  
And it had only been a day.

 

* * *

 

The day after that, they received a signal from a nearby planet. Just a small base with some prisoners. It was Coran who told Lance that it was better if he stayed. And Lance tried to convince himself that, of course, it was for the best. That it didn’t mean he wasn’t necessary.  
The mission was a success, the prisoners decided to stay in the planet. Lance stayed in his room the whole day.

 

* * *

 

The next day, Lance made as if he was tapping on a computer to ask Pidge about the tablet.  
“I’m really going to make it, I promise. But right now I need to help Allura decode the information. Sorry," she apologized.

  
Keith was outside with his lion looking for Shiro, Hunk was preparing lunch, and Allura and Coran were analyzing some information the Blade of Marmora had sent them.  
Lance just nodded and left to his room again, he knew him getting a tablet wasn’t as important as decoding information that could prove to be very important, but he couldn’t help but feel that Pidge’s promises were becoming empty.

  
Alone in his room the thoughts that had been plaguing him returned. It was his fault, he should have waited to shoot it, make a strategy, anything that didn’t end in him getting injured and ruining the mission.  
He couldn’t blame Pidge for being busy, after all, in less than a month it would be over and the tablet would be useless.  
And he couldn’t blame Coran if he didn’t want him to go to the mission, he had failed in something as simple as taking down a single sentry.

Everyone had something to do, they were all contributing with something, so he decided that with an empty training room (Keith, who usually was there all the time, hadn’t been there nearly as much since Shiro’s disappearance) he could at least go there and try to improve.

 

  
“Training sequence level 12, starting.”

It had been two days since Lance had started training. Pidge and Hunk had left early to free a small planetoid that was being used a s a mine by the galra. They hadn’t come back yet.  
The training room had a list with each paladin’s personal records. Keith, of course, had the highest, having achieved level 104. Shiro closely followed with level 98, Allura with 93, Pidge had reached level 16 and Hunk level 15. Lance’s previous record had been 13, but he had reached level 26 after training the whole previous day; he had left when he realized that he was too tired and that the robot was too fast, not leaving him enough time to prepare a decent shoot.

The reason for him being at level 12 again? He had decided to start from the very first level to warm up. No one went looking for him or wondered where he was, and by the time Keith came back from searching for the black paladin and went to the training room, Lance was no longer there.

That day he achieved level 36. And he came to the conclusion that he really, really, needed a close combat weapon.

 

That night he skipped dinner and visited an armory he had found while wandering the castle.

  
“Have you seen Lance?” Pidge inquired, everyone glanced at the empty chair.

  
“He is probably in his bedroom.”

  
Keith huffed. “He’s been there for five days, he should be helping with something.”

 

“Keith, I don’t think another paladin joining the searching would make much difference.” Keith frowned as Allura commented. “Maybe it is better if he rests, that could speed up the healing and we would have the team whole again sooner.” Her eyes widened. “I mean, as whole as it was before that accident.”

  
Uncomfortable silence.

 

Coran cleared his throat “So, how did the mission go?”

 

“We rescued this small brown aliens that lived in the caves, kind of reminded me of the balmerans. We left them means to communicate with us and they said they wanted to establish an alliance. We could use some of the materials in those caves.”

 

“Wonderful! We need to get as many allies as we can. Great job, paladins.”

 

When Keith went to the training room, he could swear he felt something was different.

 

  
The armory had blasters, lots of them. There were some gauntlets and metal bracelets that turned out to be particle shields. In the far corner there was a collection of knives and swords. Lance spent the next hour swinging the different models to see which one felt more right , he chose a straight black short sword. It would be difficult to learn to use a new weapon, but if Keith could do it, he could as well. And if they were going to keep leaving him out of missions until his voice was back, he would have lots of time to practice.

 

  
“Training sequence level 1, starting.”

His bayard lying in one corner of the room, Lance stood in what he supposed was a decent fighting position and gripped the sword in his right hand. He tried to remember Keith’s technique, and tried to copy the movements. Usually it took him less than an hour to get thought the first ten levels, it took him three hours to get to level 8, and but that time he had a headache for the lack of breakfast.

No one was at the kitchen when he grabbed what Hunk had left for him. As always, everyone had something to do.

  
In the hall, he encountered Allura. “Lance! Why weren’t you at breakfast?”  
He opened his mouth, closed it, and shrugged. It would take too long to explain what he had been doing.  
Allura frowned. “Well, there will be a meeting with The Blade of Marmora at noon, I expect you to be there.”  
Lance nodded and kept walking. The princess followed him with her eyes until he turned on a corner. Something was off.

  
He made it to level 15 by the end of the day, the meeting forgotten. He had to admit that he coordinated his movements better, that the sword felt more natural on his hand, and that in the last three levels it hadn’t been sent flying away by the training robot.

 

* * *

 

The meeting extended until almost dinnertime. Battle plans, strategy, information about conquered planets that could contain useful resources, and a discussion about extending rumors about the supposed new ruler of the empire took longer than expected.  
Sitting around the table and eating dinner, the team stared at the princess, who looked mad.

  
“Is everything alright, princess?” Coran asked.

  
Allura looked up from glaring at her goop. “I told Lance that he had to attend to the meeting, but he made no sing of showing up. I believe I am starting to understand your point, Keith, he cannot forget his duties as a paladin.”  
Everyone shared guilty glances, they hadn’t noticed the blue paladin’s absence. They had gotten used to the silence and the absence of the blue lion.

  
Pidge and Keith were already standing up to leave when Lance crossed the entrance. Hunger had finally caught up to him. He hadn’t been eating much in the last days, trying to avoid the pain that came with swallowing, but right then he felt he could eat a horse.

All heads snapped to him, he froze when he saw the disappointment in Allura’s eyes.  
“I thought I told you to come to the meeting.”

  
_‘Oh, crap. I totally forgot.’_

  
“Where were you, Lance?”

  
He really wished he had the tablet because there was no way they would understand if he tried to explain.

  
“Did you fall asleep or something?” Pidge asked.  
He shook his head.

  
The princess sighed. “Nevermind. but I expect everyone to be tomorrow after breakfast at the training room. You are dismissed.”  
Everyone left and Lance was left to eat his cold dinner alone.

 

The blue paladin knew he had to train more if he wanted to show some improvement at the team training exercise. So he decided to spend the remaining of the night practicing with his sword.

 

“Training sequence level 26, finished.” Lance pushed the button on the wall to turn the room off. It was next to the console in one of the walls that he had discovered after trying to find a way to activate the room without speaking.

His stomach growled so he headed to the kitchen.  
Every day, Hunk made snacks in the morning in case they wanted to eat when he was busy doing something else, Lance had never appreciated them as much as he had the last days. Sadly, it was too early and Hunk hadn’t come to prepare breakfast. So the only thing left was standard space goop.  
He put it in a plate and prepared himself for it’s awful taste. Honestly, how did Hunk manage to made such masterpieces with that? He put the spoon into his mouth and made a face, the taste hadn't gotten any better. But, when he swallowed, it proved considerably less painful than the usual elaborate food. Glad it almost didn’t hurt, he ignored the taste.

Lance was halfway through when Hunk entered the kitchen.  
“Morning, bro.” He yawned. Then he saw what Lance was eagerly eating. “I thought you hated the goop.”  
Lance shrugged.  
Hunk started to prepare breakfast then, taking some things out of the shelves. He was halfway through when Lance finished his food.  
“Hey, how do you think this looks?”  
Lance glanced at the delicious looking breakfast. ‘Great as always, buddy.’  
He would have made an ‘on point’ gesture if his friend had turned around, but the yellow paladin seemed to be really focussed on his work.  
“Lance? You still there?”  
Hunk was delicately putting cream on top of something that resembled a waffle so Lance decided he would ruin his best friend’s creation if he pocked him to show that, yes, he was still there.  
“He could have said something if he was going to leave,” Hunk muttered to himself.  
Lance sighed softly and went to his room to shower and put on his paladin armor before training.

 

  
At breakfast everyone noticed that Hunk hadn’t left anything on Lance’s seat.

  
“Hunk, I think you forgot Lance,” Pidge pointed out.

  
He looked confused for a second. “Oh, yeah, he had some goop earlier.”

  
The girl raised an eyebrow “I though he hated it.”  
“Me too,” Hunk admitted.

  
“Wait. Earlier? I though he wasn’t a morning person. He’s always complaining when training or missions are early,” Keith said.

  
Hunk shrugged. “I haven’t seen him much lately, and I think what bothered him was not having time for his beauty routine.”

  
“I don’t think he’s doing it anymore, he hasn’t asked me for products,” Allura commented.

  
Hunk ate some a piece of waffle. “He’s been acting weird lately.”

  
“I wonder where he is at all the time,” Coran added.

  
“I thought he was in his room,” Keith said. “ Or someone would have seen him.”

  
“But, I gotta admit I like being able to concentrate in my food, and during missions. It was kind of annoying when he started asking me what I was doing when I was decoding data,” Pidge commented.

  
“I guess.”

  
“I must admit I have been more productive without him distracting me,” Allura admitted, looking guilty.

  
“ I like the silence, too,” Keith said, taking a bite.

  
Allura shook her head. “It’s getting late.” She stood up. “I’ll be waiting for you at the training room."

 

  
Lance had thought he would barely have enough time to shower and go to the training room, but they were taking way too long, and he didn’t like to just stand there doing nothing. So he started using both his bayard and his sword, and the door opened when “Training sequence level 29, starting,” sounded. Lance had decided to start where he had left earlier.

Allura stood at the entrance, surprised. Lance was holding his inactive bayard in one hand and wielding a short sword in the other. The boy didn’t notice her so she watched as he dodged and clashed swords with the robot.  
Then, Lance saw her and lost focus enough time for the robot to send him to the ground.

“Stop training sequence!”

He got up and nodded at the princess.

_Thanks._

Usually, he would have to find a way to run to the button without getting hit. Those robots could land some pretty strong hits, and he didn't want to end up at the infirmary.

“Lance, I didn’t know you could wield a sword!”  
He smirked and opened his mouth, then he bit his lip and looked away.  
When he glanced back at her he saw the pity on her eyes, and he didn’t like it at all.

The other paladins went in then, and the training exercise started. It was just the four of them, fighting seven robots. They were level 25.

They took out Pidge and Hunk first. The duo took three robots down together, but then the fourth made her stumble and hit Hunk, which distracted him and gave the robot he was fighting off enough time to land a hit on both.

Keith took two down, no surprise there. Lance was standing near a wall trying to get a good shoot at the two remaining robots, he had hit them twice already but it hadn’t been on vital points so they hadn’t gone down. He noticed the second robot was going to attack Keith from the back. But how could he warn him? So he shoot behind Keith hoping he would turn around and see the other enemy.  
Instead, Keith turned to him, frowning and didn’t saw the robot coming at all. A hole in the ground swallowed him.

  
So it was all down to him. He had been practicing a lot, he could do it.  
He deactivated his bayard, which made Coran frown, and took out his sword, still holding the bayard on his left hand.  
He ran at the robot that had attacked Keith and stabbed it’s chest quickly, instantly he knew the blade was stuck and it would take some valuable seconds to take it out. The other enemy was coming from behind. He activated his bayard, aimed and shoot it’s head.

“Training sequence, finished.”

Lance walked to the other robot, and yanked the sword out of its chest.

 

Allura and Coran went into the arena, and Keith was mad.  
“You could have warned me!”

  
_I tried_ , he thought.

  
“And when did you even learn to use a sword?!”  
Lance shrugged.

  
“Stop doing that!”

  
Lance would have wanted to argue, fight back, do something. But he didn’t make the same mistake he had been doing for days, he didn’t open his mouth, he just looked away.  
Keith kept glaring at him.

  
Allura cleared her throat “Great job, paladins. You have definitely improved. You can go now but I need you to be ready early tomorrow, we’ll free one of the planets the Blade of Marmora told us about. The planet is filled with plants, so it will be easier for the green lion.”  
Lance was starting to get excited, he had been excluded from two missions, but at least he was finally going to leave the castle and do something.  
“Oh, Lance, I think we should wait for your injury to heal a little more, I am sure we will manage without the blue lion.”  
He nodded, smiled and left the room with the others. No one seemed to notice how hurt he was. The thing was that he too was sure they would manage without him.

 

Lance showered and took a long nap. No one said anything when Lance didn’t go to lunch, or when Hunk didn’t put any food at Lance’s seat at dinner.  
Everyone except Keith was discussing plans for the next mission during the meal. The red paladin wondered about that shoot, had it been a warning? Had he overreacted? Yes, it had definitely not been an accident, Lance rarely failed a shoot.  
Keith would apologize later.

 

* * *

 

Lance was feeling lonely. It had only been a week, but it felt like month. So he decided to go visit Blue, and then realized he should have done it much sooner when he remembered he didn’t need words to communicate with her.

She opened her mouth as soon as she saw him. And she purred softly until he felt asleep in the pilot seat. He was her paladin, and she didn’t care if he couldn’t speak, after all, neither could she.

 

* * *

 

After training for a couple hours, Keith went to his room and passed by Lance’s, he knocked. And waited. But no one answered.  
“Lance?”  
If the boy was inside he was probably mad at him, and Keith didn’t blame him.  
He walked away promising himself to go the next day.  
Again, empty promises.

 

* * *

 

The battle for the green planet was harder than expected, the castle had to aid in the fight. But no one asked where Lance was and no one thought about asking him for help.

 

* * *

 

Another day passed by, and he finally decided to try and talk again to the others. He didn’t think he could stay by himself much longer, he just was someone who needed interaction with others.

  
So by the tenth day he visited Pidge at one of her hiding spots, he knew most of them, and somehow he just knew she would be working on her laptop behind a usual spot next to a column.  
She looked to be working on something big, numbers and weird symbols flew around the screen as she tipped unnaturally fast. He waited for some minutes not wanting to interrupt. But then he decided to shake her shoulder to get her attention, after all she was the one who had promised to make the tablet for him.  
So he shook her shoulder gently.

  
Pidge practically jumped, and standing up, turned around glaring at him.  
“Lance, you almost scared me to death! What are you even doing here? I know how you like to ask about what I’m doing, but I really need to get this codes for the Blade of Marmora. You know I don’t like being interrupted, and I’m sure it isn’t anything important, right? So just leave me alone, okay? I gotta concentrate.”

_She is right, is’t she? It’s nothing important._

 

He left and trained until night came. Reaching level 60 didn’t bring him nearly as much joy as he had expected.

 

* * *

 

During the three days that followed he tried to participate in conversations at meals, to interact with others. And did his best to ignore how the paladins were sent into yet another mission without him.  
And he really tried, he tried waving his hand to get their attention, poke shoulders, point at things, smile. But he just got ignored again and again and again.  
He visited Blue daily, but it just wasn’t enough.  
After trying for three days, he decided that his team simply didn’t want to talk to him, he didn’t even know if he was part of the team anymore. No one reached out for him, or asked him where he’d been, and they barely acknowledged his presence. Hunk, his very best friend, kept forgetting to make meals for him. So he just gave up.

  
So maybe the only reason he was included before was that he was always trying to get noticed, talking, joking, flirting.  
He spent the next to days without taking to anyone, avoiding everyone. He thought he must look like a ghost, haunting the halls and the training room.  
He knew Blue tried, but she just didn’t understand.  
  


Two weeks passed, and the purple shade was practically gone. He would have told Coran, he would have reminded them. But Lance spent his days wandering the castle, and he had heard comments about the peace and the silence, so wasn’t it better that way? Everyone would be happy (it didn’t matter that he wasn’t, it had never really mattered). So he didn’t tell Coran, didn’t tell anyone. And hoped they would remember. He waited for days.

He just had to kept thinking that it was better that way, to keep convincing himself. If it was what everyone wanted. He cared for the team, even if they didn’t seemed to return the feeling. All along he had known that he was the seventh wheel, so why did it hurt so much? why did it felt like a blow to the heart?


	2. Kick to The Gut

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lotor appears, there's no one to get Keith to let his anger go, and being captured by the enemy wasn't what Lance expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I said I would update next week, but I ended up writing the whole thing in a day.
> 
> Thanks for all the comments and the kudos! Honestly, knowing what you think about the chapters it's the best thing.

When Allura’s voice sounded in every room of the castle, asking the paladins to meet her at the control room, Lance ignored it. He had stopped considering himself a paladin, at least not what the team considered a paladin, he still had Blue. He had had to clean her some days before as she was starting to get covered in dust.

But not so long after that, there was a knock on the his bedroom’s door, he frowned.  
He opened the door to find Allura.  
“Lance, I just called for a meeting, didn’t you hear?”  
She either didn’t notice or decided to ignore the surprise in his face.

He grabbed his jacket and followed her.  
Everyone was waiting for him, he waved a hand.

  
“Hey, man.”

  
“Hi, Lance.”

  
“Lance, my boy, haven’t seen you for a while.”

  
“Hey.” Keith looked kind of shocked as it it had just remembered something. Then, he looked away.

  
Lance raised an eyebrow.  
Allura then told them about the mission. They would free a planet that belonged a to aliens that communicated among themselves telepathically. That caught Lance’s interest.  
All they had to do was take down a ship that guarded the planet.

Everything was going pretty well, he loved being able to fly at last, Blue did too, as she was radiating happiness.  
Then, it happened all over again.

He saw some hunters get behind the green lion.

  
_Pidge, behind you!_

  
For the first time in a long time he opened his mouth to yell.  
They hit the lion. Nothing she couldn’t deal with, but still.

 

“I need backup!” Keith yelled, the red lion was surrounded by ships.  
Lance decided to be the backup.  
He turned the lion around to see some hunters get below the yellow lion.

  
_Hunk, below you!_  
But not a single sound came out.  
It was so frustrating.

The mission was a success but Lance didn’t feel any better.

 

* * *

 

 

Another mission followed that one, one where Lance and Hunk were sent with the Blade of Marmora. He tried destroying enemies instead of warning Hunk about them. It worked.

He stayed in the back and saw how the ungrateful aliens glared at the galra that had saved them. He wished he could say something about it. Hunk didn’t.

Lance just smiled at the aliens that complimented him wondering how it would have been if he hadn’t lost his voice.

 

 

There was a meeting with the leaders of some of the planets they had saved, Keith exploded. Doubt was writing all over the aliens’ faces.

 

“Voltron doesn’t exist anymore!”

 

And with that, Allura finally said they needed a new black paladin.

So they went to Black.  
Lance just sat on the pilot seat, waited two seconds, and stood up.  
It turned out Keith was the leader, no one was surprised. He didn’t seem too happy with Black’s decision.

 

Allura tried Red and failed. Lance apparently was the only one who saw how broken she was below the surface. he felt that way too.  
When everyone left the room, he walked to her, still standing at the center of it, and put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him and smiled, he smiled back.

 

They discovered that the rumors were true. Zarkon had a son, and said son was currently attacking the castle.  
Everyone got to their lions. But Lance stayed behind.  
Blue, who had comforted him, who had purred him to sleep, who had been his only company for weeks, wouldn’t open up for him.

 

_Come on, Blue. Open up, I need to defend the castle! Please._

His only answer was icy silence. He hated silence so much.

 

Lance looked at the ground sadly.  
_I guess you hate me now. Who would want a pilot who can’t speak? Who can’t even warn their teammates?_

  
No answer.

  
Allura came into the room.  
“What’s wrong?”  
He just pointed at the barrier.  
“She won’t open up for you.”

A roar echoed in the castle.  
“Go, she’s calling you!”

  
Lance stood in front of Red, he reluctantly went in. He didn’t want Keith’s lion, he wanted Blue. But it seemed that she didn’t want him.  
He sat and grabbed the controls.

  
The Red lion was soon followed by the Blue lion.  
He had to admit that Red was a lot faster and agile than Blue.

The enemy ship left.

 

Keith wanted to follow.  
Lance knew it was a terrible idea. More than half the team had new lions and they knew basically nothing about Lotor.  
He understood that Keith wanted Shiro back. Hell, _he_ wanted Shiro back too; Shiro would understand, would try to reach out to him, he would know how it felt to loose a part of yourself. He would be lying if he said he missed their former leader as much as Keith did, but he understood why Keith was so desperate.

Still, it was a terrible a idea.  
But no one acknowledged him shacking his head repeatedly.

 

And so, they were following Lotor, flying very close to the atmosphere of a planet.  
Hunk was the first to voice what Lance had been thinking himself, thought no one dared to directly blame Keith.  
Allura was having problems with Blue, Lance had though she would easily connect with her lion, but she was treating it like the castle, and he knew for experience, that you couldn’t command Blue to do anything and yelling really did not work.  
Keith wasn’t wrong, they could end it right then, but you didn’t need to be a genius to see that the team wasn’t fighting like, well, a team. What they needed was to go back to the castle and have another bonding exercise and learn how to form Voltron, they couldn’t just throw themselves into battle like that. One thing was defending the castle and another thing taking down the enemy. Surely Keith would realize they were not ready, right?

 

“We are going in now.”

 

Apparently he didn’t realize it, and Allura, who he had though would see the situation for what it was and realize she herself wasn’t ready yet, seemed too anxious to prove herself.

God, he really wished he had that tablet.

Lotor decided to attack them with a single fighter.

  
Lance didn’t quite realize how fast Red was until he accidentally hit Keith.

  
“Lance, what are you doing?”

  
_Sorry! Red is a lot faster than I’m used to._

  
“Ugh” Keith grunted at the lack of answer.

 

He had to recognize Zarkon’s son had some amazing piloting skills. He gave Garrison’s top pilot a run for his money and basically defeated them by himself. They were a total mess. Allura and Keith just kept yelling at their lions, like seriously, Lance had thought the guy would have learned something from flying Red. And he himself was having trouble as Red cut through distance in a completely different way to Blue.

When Keith told them to form Voltron, he just sighed and shook his head. Couldn’t they see there was no way they would do it with the team so fragmented? Lotor was probably having a laugh watching them fly in formation like that.  
And they just weren’t paying attention, he saw the fighter coming, but he couldn’t warn them and they got hit.

 

But Keith refused to quit and they ended up following the enemy to a cloudy planet, the leader ignored Pidge’s warnings, and Pidge was right almost every time.

The gases messed with their radios, not that it did much difference to him, but the others were starting to get worried.  
Lance flinched when he saw how Blue took a hit, but he sticked with Black, someone needed to make sure Keith didn’t get himself killed.

  
The former red paladin tailed Lotor, getting visibly angrier with every second that passed. No one told him to stop, so he didn’t. The Black Lion charged, but it wasn’t able to evade a rock pilar in time, it crashed and fell, disappearing between the mist.

 

“Keith!” Pidge screamed, and he did it too, but the only one who heard it was himself.

 

The fighter turned around and fired, the green lion hid behind a pilar.  
Lance tried to shoot it and ended up bumping into another pilar.

 

“I’ll search for Keith!” Pidge said as the Green Lion dived into the mist.

 

_Wait, What?! You can’t leave me to fight him alone! The guy took all of us down! Together! How am I supposed to defeat him?_

 

Deciding that if he was going down he would do so fighting, Lance turned his attention back to the fighter.  
He was faster than Lotor, but his enemy had far more control over his ship and was an overall better pilot than him. Also, he probably wasn’t alone, and Lance, with an empty feeling in his chest, realized he was. His team had abandoned him.  
So, how to defeat Lotor? He could dodge and try to get decent shoot angles, confuse Lotor. And hope someone would find him.

But before he could put his plan in practice, Lotor started shooting, Lance could only dodge, he had no time to prepare a shoot.

He could see what Lotor was doing, guiding him somewhere, the gas slowly shifted to red.

 

Suddenly, the prince stopped firing and Lance finally had his chance. But he waited. Why did the attack stop? It just made no sense. Lotor wanted him to shoot, but why?

He couldn’t analyze the situation more when the fighter tackled the Lion. Lance gripped the controls. He really didn’t have any other option.  
_Screw it._  
He fired.  
And an explosion hit the lion, blinding him. Red lights filled the cabin.  
_Shit._

Three hits followed, the fighter attacked from above, behind and on the left. The fog around him became denser. A piece of a rock pilar, either because of the explosion or the enemy, fell on top of the cabin. Two more followed. And Red plummeted a couple meters, hitting a horizontal pilar.  
Red lied there, Lance could see the fighter hovering above him.  
_Come on, girl._  
The Lion tried to stand up but hit the ground once more.

A purple light then surrounded Red and her particle shield rose.

  
_Since when do fighters even have those rays_ , he thought bitterly.

The Lion floated until they were out in space once again, and until that moment, Lance had held the hope that one of the other paladins would go looking for him.

 

* * *

 

The fighter went to the ship and into the hangar, from what Lance could see, the space ship was bigger than it looked from outside. There were at least ten fighters there and enough space for Red and maybe another Lion. The hangar’s door closed.

Lance stood up and prepared himself. if he somehow miraculously managed to take down Lotor and whoever was with him, he could scape. Or, more realistically, he could land some hits and made things difficult for his enemies.

He could just stay inside the Lion and the protection of the barrier, but he could also go out and get information about Lotor’s team, so he would get something good out of the situation.

From the cabin, he could see three shapes standing at the other side of the barrier, one sightly bigger than the others.  
Lance then grabbed his bayard on his left hand and his sword on his right and got out of the Lion. The figures, a pink female alien, Lotor, and a Galra with pink ears looked surprised to see him there.

 

_Red, drop the shield, I need to get out._  
To his surprise, the Lion actually dropped it.  
He activated his bayard and fired, the enemies dodged and scattered. She noticed the pink one was very agile, he would have to keep that in mind. He fired a couple more times and decided there was no use to it, he deactivated his bayard and charged at the galra with the pink ears with his sword.  
She caught it with her hand and send Lance and his weapon flying, he rolled on the ground and jumped back up.

  
_She’s strong, a direct hit could easily break some bones._

 

Lance looked around, surveying his surroundings. The pink girl was nowhere to be seen.  
_I knew I had to look out for her._

He tried attacking Lotor then. The prince blocked his sword with one of his own. Lance dodged and blocked some blows ,and realised ,with sinking fear, that he was nowhere near Lotor’s level.  
He backed away and shoot with his bayard, forcing Lotor to dodge and leave some space between them.  
Red made no sign of helping, maybe she was too damaged or didn’t care that much for him. Still no sign of the pink girl.

Suddenly, the pink alien appeared out of thin air and kicked him in the stomach before he could even react. Even with his paladin armor, it hurt. A lot.

Lance fell to the ground holding his middle. His sword and bayard forgotten in the ground. He realized his mistake when the girl kicked them away, leaving him weaponless.

 

“I was wondering what was taking you so long,” Lotor spoke.

  
The girl smiled slyly. “You know I like to see what they can do first” Then she turned at to look at Lance. “Not too bad, seeing how easily prince Lotor took your team down before.”

 

“Will you keep fighting, paladin?” The prince asked. But the answer was pretty obvious, with them standing menacingly around him and Lance sitting defenseless on the ground.

He shook his head.

“Good. Follow us then.” Lotor ordered.

 

  
It was kind of unreal. Him calmly walking side by side with the enemy. They were going down a hallway, Lotor and the pink girl at the front and the galra woman and him behind them. She was the only one who was evidently still on guard.

“Why are you always so nice with prisoners?” he heard the pink one ask Zarkon’s son.

  
“I don’t wish to follow my father’s steps,” the prince stated. The girl didn’t say anything else after that.

 

They took him to the control room. There were two other aliens there. A galra looking girl who was piloting, and a hooded one with a lizard tail. As far as he could see, she ( well, they looked like a she) didn’t have any eyes. There was also a cat on her shoulder, it looked shockingly normal to be from space. Even if people usually thought otherwise, Lance was a cat person. His family didn’t have the time to take care of a pet, but he had always loved his aunt’s cats. He liked dogs too, once his sister moved out she adopted one and Lance loved her, he was also known for petting all the dogs in the neighborhood, but he just found it incredible how agile cats were , and his ship was literally a huge cat too.  
But, he just couldn’t go and ask to pet his enemy’s cat. Sadly.

 

“The mission was a success, it seems,” the pilot said.

  
“It was actually easier than I expected.” Lance knew the prince was right, but he still felt offended. Lotor pointed at an empty seat. “Sit there," he ordered. And honestly, there was no point in resisting. Lotor raised an eyebrow. “I would have expected a paladin to be much more stubborn.” If he could speak, Lance would have told him that the others would probably struggle and keep attacking until they were beaten up and bleeding or in a cell, he just didn’t see the point in getting hurt if he wasn’t exactly being threatened.  
He simply shrugged. Lotor frowned.  
“Acxa,” he ordered “get us out of here.”

 

Lance tried to get a look through the glass without being too obvious, but he didn’t find any sign of the lions and the ship turned around and left the planet behind before he could do anything.  
Everyone went to do their own business. Lotor was discussing something with Acxa, too softly for Lance to hear, the lizard girl and the galra woman were feeding and playing with the cat, and the pink one was standing close to the glass, looking at the space.  
It wasn’t what he expected the enemy ship to be like, it was kid of similar to how it was at the castle. Weren’t they going to interrogate him? They weren’t even acknowledging he was there.

 

Suddenly the pink girl turned around and walked to where he was, sitting next to him.  
“So, what’s your name?” She asked leaning on the arm of the seat.  
It wasn’t like he could answer, but he probably wouldn’t have even if he could.  
“I’m Ezor and those two are Narti and Zethrid” she said, pointing at the hooded girl and the galra woman. “And I guess you already know the others are Acxa and prince Lotor.”  
She frowned when he didn’t say anything.  
“Come on, you know our names and how we look! I can’t even see your face.”  
Lance realized he hadn’t taken his helmet off, would it really matter if he did? They would probably force him to take it off sooner or later, and it couldn’t hurt to make his captivity a little more comfortable. It wasn’t like he had a secret identity to protect.

He removed his helmet and placed it on his lap. He turned to look at Ezor, who was smiling.  
“So you _were_ listening.” Her smile changed to a smirk. “You are pretty handsome, I’m glad you decided to show your face.”  
Lance flirted a lot, yes, but it wasn’t as if anyone ever flirted back. It had to have shown on his face because the girl laughed, but not really in a mocking manner. “Gods, you’re blushing! I thought the paladins of Voltron would have people making lines for them, with being heroes and all.”  
Embarrassed, he looked away.

 

Ezor’s laugh seemed to have caught the other’s attention because all eyes were on them.  
Lotor stood up and stood in front of Lance.  
“I see you took off your helmet. So this is the face of the paladin that faced my father personally. I wonder though, why the blue armor?” No questions about Voltron’s plans. No, the prince of the galra empire was asking about Lance’s outfit.

Lotor frowned once again at the silence.  
“Based on the color of your armour, I would say you were once the pilot of the Blue Lion. If the paladins have swished lions that would explain the poor performance you and your team just exhibited.” He didn’t made any movement to confirm Lotor’s correct suppositions. “I’ve got to admit you put up the best fight, your leader was such a disappointment.” The prince moved to sit.  
“The blue paladin is said to be one of the most loyal, along with the yellow one, so I don’t expect to receive any information from you anytime soon. But-“ a cruel smirk appeared on the prince’s face. “it must have hurt when they abandoned you, even more as you are so loyal to your teammates.”  
Yes, it had hurt. A lot. But it wasn’t as if the team hadn’t spent weeks abandoning him again and again.  
“Aren’t you going to speak a word?” Zethrid demanded.  
Lance shifted in his seat uncomfortably.

 

Ezor gasped and everyone turned around to look at her. Her eyes were open in realization.  
“I get it now! Wait, I’ll be back in a minute.” And she stood out and dashed out of the room.

  
All of the others sighed almost in unison. “Even in this situation,” Lotor muttered, but he wasn’t annoyed, none of them were, they knew it was just how their teammate was and they still appreciated her.

  
Lance looked sadly to the ground.  
_I wished the team was more like this._  
No, it was not the time to think things like that.

He looked up again. By the curious look the prince gave him he knew it hadn’t gone unnoticed.  
Zethrid and Narti had gone back to playing with the cat.

 

Some minutes later Ezor came back holding something flat and rectangular.  
“Here,” she said and handed it to Lance as she sat down.  
He looked at the object, it looked kind of like a tablet, but he didn’t see any button to turn it on. He looked up, everyone had a look of realization on their faces, well, except Narti, but she looked more interested in him than in her cat.

He raised an eyebrow at Ezor and she seemed to understand.  
As if they were friends, she took the object from his hands and tapped the middle of the screen two times. Some kind of menu appeared with weird galra symbols, the letters shone purple (no surprise there) and she started clicking things.  
“I’m glad we didn’t throw this away,” she commented while tapping and selecting options. “I think your species are called “humans”, and there was this prisoner that gave lots of information about your languages. He looked older than you thought. And why do you even need more than one language?” Lance’s eyes widened. An older prisoner? Could it be Pidge’s dad? “I asked a druid to make this, and they included all known languages, they were very kind. I even got to see that human.” She had stopped tipping and was looking at Lance as she handed the tablet. He looked down at it, there was a english keyboard on it. “I got it for Narti, she can’t speak either.”  
Lance looked up at the pink girl, then at Narti, and back at the tablet.  
He couldn’t help the smile forming on his face, he felt like it was christmas. God, he had wanted a tablet so bad, he just had convinced himself that he didn’t need it.

 

He tipped. “Thank you.” A male voice said, it wasn’t his voice, but it sounded like it could belong to him.  
Ezor smiled.

 

“Why didn’t your team give you one?” Acxa hadn’t said much until then, it kind of surprised Lance.

  
He though the answer for a bit. “They… forgot.”

  
Lotor pursued his lips. “It seems Voltron doesn’t threat their soldiers much better than the empire.”

  
They did, he though, just not him.

 

“Racist little shits,” Zethrid muttered. The comment got a smile out of Lance.  
He hadn’t smiled that much in weeks.

He tipped again. “I wasn’t the one who faced Zarkon.”

  
“I guessed as much. Who was it then? The black paladin?”

  
Maybe they had treated him better in the last ten minutes than his team had in days, but he wasn’t about to become a traitor. “I can’t tell you that.”

  
“Of course.”

  
Lance doubted before ‘speaking’ again “Aren’t you going to torture me?” He didn’t want to give them any ideas, but he was growing anxious.

  
Lotor sighed. “I don’t believe in Zarkon’s or my mother’s ways,” mother? “I prefer persuasion.”

So that was what it was all about. He may be have been attention starved, but he wasn’t going to swear loyalty to the first person that acknowledged him. They would have to do better than that.  
But the tablet? He didn’t think any of them expected Ezor to do that. Maybe she simply was that nice.

 

“That’s the best news I have received in a while, to be honest,” he joked, Lance didn’t know why he had done it. Why was he sitting calmly and chatting with the enemy in the first place?

 

Zethrid and Ezor chuckled, Narti waved her tail a bit, the corner of Acxa’s mouth lifted a little, and Lotor sighed dramatically. “Now there’s two of them,” he said.

 

_Two of them?_

 

Ezor literally jumped onto his lap. “We’ll. Be. Best friends.” So that’s what Lotor mean. “Acxa here doesn’t seem to have a sense of humor.” She turned to look at the purple girl. “You’re my second best friend now, can’t let the only person in this ship with a sense of humor pass.”

  
Acxa sighed, smiling softly. “Remember he’s a prisoner.”

  
“He’ll stay for a while anyways.”

  
“Why don’t you take your best friend to eat something and then to his headquarters. He can use the room next to yours.” Lotor spoke up.

  
The girl jumped off  Lance’s lap “Right away, prince Lotor.” She grabbed Lance’s hand and pulled him up, she was stronger than she looked.  
“Come on, let’s go.”

 

  
They were in the hallway when she finally let go of his hand.  
“You know, you never told us your name.”  
Oh.

  
“The name’s Lance,” he smiled as he remembered the memory that that sentence brought.

  
The hallway lead to a room with three exits and a single table. He followed Ezor through the exit on the right. It lead to a kitchen.  
She opened a cabinet and gave him a bowl with a white sphere.  
“I know how it looks, but you’ll like it,” she promised  
He stared at the sphere. He was hungry. Lance took of his right glove and grabbed it; it felt like jelly. He took a bite.

 

“It was actually pretty good,” he wrote after finishing the jelly. It had tasted sweet.

  
“That’s what we eat here all the time, it’s got all the nutrients we need and no one really knows how to cook.”  
They were walking down yet another hall, heading to what would be Lance’s new bedroom.

Having a conversation felt so good.

  
She stopped in the middle of a hall with many doors. “This is my room.” She pointed at the door on the right of the one he was standing in front of. It had a pink dot. “That’s Acxa’s.” She pointed at the door next to hers, a dark purple dot. “This is Narti’s.” A room on the other side of the hall in front of hers, a black dot. “That’s Zethrid’s.” The door in from of Acxa’s, with a light purple dot. “This is prince Lotor’s.” The room on the other side of Narti’s, a yellow dot. “And this,” She touched a big green dot in a keyboard next to the door and it opened. She stepped inside, “is yours.”

There was a bed with grey sheets; a shelf with some books, a pile of paper (why didn’t the castle have any paper?), something that looked like pens, and what looked like a laptop; a closet on the wall opposite to the bed; and another door. Both the room and the bed were bigger than his former ones.

“You can take a shower and change clothes,there are some in the closet. I’ll come back in half a varga. I’ll lock the door, can’t let you wander the castle by yourself, right, Lancey?” And she left, locking the door from outside.

_Did she just call me…? Never mind._

 

Lance showered and changed into a black pair of pants and a simple grey t-shirt. He carefully left his armor on the closet and hoped nothing would happen to it, who knew in what conditions they were keeping his bayard.  
He tried using the laptop but he couldn’t figure out what the letters said, so he gave up and lied on his bed, staring at the ceiling.

Only two minutes later, the door opened.  
He sat back up, holding his tablet.  
Ezor was wearing brown pants and a light blue sleeveless t-shirt. She spun around. “Like what you see?”

  
“Can’t say I don’t.”

  
Ezor giggled. “Finally someone gets it! When I was with Acxa she was just too serious, and I like to fool around.”The mentioned girl really didn’t look like the type to flirt and joke at all.

 

“ Want to go grab some food?” He nodded.

  
They went to the kitchen, where Narti was feeding her cat; ate some more jelly; and went back to Lance’s room.  
“It’s getting late,” She said as she left. “See you tomorrow.”

The door locked with a click.

Feeling confused, Lance changed into a pajama and went to bed.

Sleep came way too easily.

 

* * *

 

It took some hours for the lions to get back together and go back to the castle.

“What do you mean Lance’s missing?” Allura asked Coran, trying to keep an even voice.

  
“The Red Lion is definitely not in the planet and you said Lotor suddenly banished. I would say they captured the Red Lion. It would also make sense seeing that Pidge left Lance to fight Lotor alone when she went looking for Keith,” the man explained.

Pidge looked like she was trying to disappear. If she had stayed it wouldn’t have happened. Lance just kept getting hurt because of her.

 

“We have to go looking for him!” Hunk pleaded.

  
“Of course, we need to get back the Red Lion or we won’t be able to form Voltron.” Allura noticed the look everyone was giving her. “Lance too, of course.”

  
They spent the rest of the day searching. No sign of Lance or Lotor, but they had to come back as Allura insisted they had to rest.

The next few days weren’t much different. Add a break for lunch and dinner. For all they knew, Lance could be millions of miles away.

 

* * *

   
Ezor came looking for him in the morning, he was already dressed in an outfit not too different from the one he had wore the night before. But she was in her armor and told him to get into his as well, he changed in the bathroom.

Breakfast in the ship was more animated that he expected. Narti’s cat, Kova, as Ezor told him, took bites from her jelly. No one seemed to mind that he was there, and they all were in their armors.  
He asked Ezor the reason, she told him training.  
Zethrid asked him where he was from. He told her earth. She asked what his name was. He told her Lance. She also told her, Ezor and Acxa ( who didn’t ask anything but was evidently listening) about some animals, the sea and the rain. They listened.  
Ezor them told them about one time when she was in a mission with some regular soldiers, and when precipitation came, most of them who had never experienced it, slipped and even screamed. Even Acxa laughed softly at that. Lotor was focussed on something he was reading in a tablet.

 

After breakfast, they all went to the training room. Lotor didn’t stop reading until they went there.  
It wasn’t very different from the castle’s, the most noticeable difference were some colosseum-like steps at one side of the room, the arena was also delimited by a red line.

“You can either take it as practice or as an enemy attacking,” the prince said, moving to sit on one of the steps. “Zethrid, you go first. Let’s see what a paladin of Voltron is capable of."

 

He noticed his bayard and sword were lying in the middle of the arena. He crushed the hope of escaping. There was no way he could defeat all of them together and he didn’t even know what Acxa and Narti were capable of.

He handed his tablet to Ezor and went to retrieve his weapons.

“Start.”

 

It wasn’t long until the woman caught his sword and threw him out of the limits.  
“A dobash and thirteen ticks,” Acxa announced.

“Your turn, Ezor.”

  
Lance held his ground for longer in that fight. Ezor was incredibly good at dodging but he had his particle shield and some experience dodging robots.  
That was, until she became invisible. He tried to see if he heard anything but there was nothing.  
Something hit his hand, sending his sword flying and he was pushed to the ground, his bayard fell from his grasp.  
He felt something on his neck, and Ezor appeared on top of him with her hands in his neck as if to strangle him.

  
“Pinned ya,” she said, but her eyes weren’t as cheerful as usual, more serious.  
She got off and helped him get up.

  
Acxa came next, it was a gun duel. He was lucky he had his shield.  
When she was close to the limits, he charged ,protecting himself with his shield, and attacked with his sword. She backed away to avoid being hit and found herself out of the limits.  
Lance noticed her clenched fists as she went back to the steps.

 

It didn’t take long for him to realize that Narti saw through Kova. It was the only explanation to the cat being inside the ring and its staring at Lance. It would be almost impossible for someone, no matter how good their sense of hearing was, to avoid all of Lance’s shoots.  
But when he tried attacking the cat instead, Narti charged at him, hit his shield with her tail, and before he realized it. She had grabbed him from the middle and thrown him out of the arena.

  
“You realized Kova was her eyes quite fast,” Lotor commented. “It is my turn now.”  
He unsheathed a dark double edged sword.

 

“Start,” Acxa said, and the two of them clashed blades.

 

He knew he couldn’t win. But he could put up a good fight.

Acxa announced three dobash had passed by before Lance found himself in the floor with the tip of a sword to his throat.

Lotor extended a hand. He doubted for a second and took it. What was he doing holding hands (quite literally and more than one time) with the enemy?

“I can see you don’t have much technique, but you learn quite fast. You somehow predicted were I was going to hit, not something that happens often. Your aim is quite good too, are you Voltron’s sharpshooter?”  
Lance nodded.

  
“You and Acxa could practice together, don’t you think?” Ezor suggested, the purple girl looked away.

 

They all went to their rooms and Lance noticed his door had a blue dot.  
He showered and changed into the clothes he had had that morning. That time the door wasn’t locked, but Ezor came back before he could start planning anything.

  
Lunch wasn’t much different from breakfast.  
They asked about where he learnt to shoot and use the sword. He told them about the Garrison, because, it wasn’t like that was something they could use against Voltron, and if Pidge’s dad had taught the galra english classes, he had probably spilled more information.  
He told them he learned to use the sword by himself. Lotor said he had potential.

  
He went to the cockpit after that. Acxa and Lotor were there too, Narti and Zethrid were nowhere to be seen, and Ezor had told him she wanted to take a nap.

They didn’t have any intention of leaving him alone, but at least they weren’t exactly guarding him.  
He stared at the void, while he tried to listen to the conversation. Not once did the words “Voltron” or “lions” come up, he knew they weren’t that careless, but he still hoped.

After hearing dozens coordinates and the properties of the air and soil of twelve different planets, Lance stood up to leave.

Lotor turned around. “Where are you going?”

  
Lance stopped. “To the kitchen and then my room, the hangar is down the other hallway anyways.”

  
“Yes, of course.”

 

He hadn’t been lying. He ate some more jelly (the stuff had to be addictive), and went back to his room.  
He grabbed a paper and sat down on the desk. He made a map of the ship, but there were too many doors that he didn’t know what they hid to his liking.

He hid it under his pillow and went to sleep early.

 

* * *

 

  
The next morning Ezor told him Lotor had allowed for him to wander the ship alone because he hadn’t attempted to escape yet. She was going to get some supplies.  
“You need a password to open the armory and the hangar and if you try he’ll notice and will have someone follow you around all the time. Don’t test his patience,” she warned.

She watched from the cockpit how the fighter entered the atmosphere of the planet below.

He walked down the previously prohibited hallway and saw the door at the end of it and another one had a red light on the keyboard next to them. So the other door was the armory.  
There were four more doors there. Three supplies room and a library.

He went to the kitchen and had breakfast by himself.  
He confirmed that all the doors in the bedrooms hallway were indeed bedrooms.  
He found a small hallway with a window at the end of it. It had no doors.

There, sitting on the ground and staring at the space, her hand stroking Kova on her lap, was Narti.

She heard him and turned around, the cat did too.  
He waved at her, she just turned back at the window. A couple seconds passed and she turned around again. Her head made the slightest movement pointing to a spot close to the window and across form the wall she was leaning on.  
Lance sat down.

He stared at the window for some seconds and then looked at Kova.  
He motioned to touch the cat and stop mid movement looking up at the girl.  
_Is it okay?_  
She nodded.

Kova’s fur was soft, it calmed him.  
He looked out at the window once again as he keep stroking the cat.  
He didn’t notice when he fell asleep.

  
When he woke up Narti was still there, looking at the stars.  
She noticed how he shifted his position and stretched. She then showed him her palm. The cat looked up at Lance and then at her hand.  
He reluctantly moved his hand towards her, not wanting to break whatever bond he had formed with the mysterious girl, and put his hand on hers.

Images of a lab, purple and yellow light, glass tubes, blood and syringes crossed his mind.  
He blinked staring at the girl. Where those her memories?

  
_‘I’m sorry that happened to you, I saw it.’_  
The words were on his mind but definitely weren’t his own thoughts. Somehow he heard them, but there was no voice.  
The certainty that she had seen his memories hit him like a brick. But somehow he trusted her.  
He did some more window watching and petted the cat before he decided to leave, he was getting hungry and who knew for how long he had been sleeping.

  
Acxa was waiting for him on the other hallway.

  
“He only lets Zethrid pet Kova,” she said.

  
He made no move to write anything on his tablet as he didn’t know what to answer.  
She sighed. “I know I have been acting rudely. I didn’t take being defeated in front of prince Lotor very well. And I don’t wish to make you more of an enemy that you formerly are, as you may be staying here for a while. Would you like practicing as Ezor suggested?”

 

He tipped. “Yeah, don’t worry about it. I could learn some things from someone as skilled as you.”

  
“Oh, thank you. Let’s go then.”  
She waited outside of his room for him to get into his paladin armor and they went to the training room.

 

Acxa was amazing at shooting and finding good angles to fire.  
They sparred and she told him some tips for getting a better aim.

  
Lance discovered the reason he was so hungry was because he had slept through lunch time. They walked together to the dinning room, having decided they were too hungry to change clothes first.

All the others were there and there was were two plates of food for them.

“I was wondering where you two were!” Ezor said.

  
“We were training,” Acxa replied.

  
“So you followed my advice, glad to see you are not glaring at Lance anymore.”

 

Ezor told them that the planet was very cold and that the base was too small. The guards didn’t seem happy to see her there.  
Zethrid huffed. “You know how there are, they despise us.”

Narti went to the kitchen and came back with a cookie for Kova. She gave it to Lance and he in turn gave it to the cat, who was sitting in the table as if it belonged to him. He stroke the cat.

 

Ezor accompanied him to his room. “I have always wanted to pet Kova, it’s like, such an honor.”  
They reached his room. “I’m glad you are friends with Narti, I was right to think you would understand her more than we do.” The door with the blue dot opened. “Sleep thigh, Lancey,” she said and locked the door.

That night, he added the hallway with the windows and the supply rooms and library to the map.

 

  
The next morning he found his door was unlocked, no one was there at breakfast when he got his jelly.  
He decided to go to the training room.  
Zethrid was there.  
“You wanna spar?”  
By the end of the morning he managed to last ten minutes in the arena with her.

 

  
He was going to change when red lights engulfed the corridor.  
He went to the cockpit and found everyone there with their armors.  
“More of prince Lotor’s opposers.” Ezor said.

Everyone except Acxa and himself got inside a fighter and defended against the increasing number of enemy fleets. A ship not much larger than theirs hovered behind the enemy fighters.

They took out many of the enemies before they reached the other ship and infiltrated it.  
_They are going to take it down from the inside._

Acxa blasted the remaining fighters into oblivion.

  
Then a red symbol appeared on the screen. “They are inside,” she whispered.

Acxa stood up and took out her blaster. Lance followed her to the hangar, stopping at the open armory to grab his weapons. The hangar was closed, but there were five fighters that didn’t belong to them on it.  
The enemies fired and Acxa and she hid behind a fighter.  
It was his chance, he could escape.  
An enemy appeared from Acxa’s uncovered side and he shoot it, she turned to look at him, surprised.  
There were five enemies and they took all of them out. Escape plans were forgotten.

They returned to the cockpit and saw as explosions rocked the enemy ship, four fighters got out of it and Acxa fired the final blast that destroyed it.  
That’s when Acxa turned around. “Thanks,” she said.

 

They waited for the others in the hangar.

“I see you had some fun too,” Zethrid commented, looking at the bodies.

Lotor was frowning. “Why would you do it, why help us? It was the perfect chance to escape.”

  
Lance took his time to answer. He couldn’t come up with anything. “I don’t know.”

  
Lotor seemed amused. “You are more interesting than I originally thought.”

 

That night when Ezor took him to his room, there was a cruel gleam on her eyes. And Lance realized there was a darker side to her he hadn’t seen.  
He didn’t want to see it. She only showed it to her enemies.  
And they were all dead.

They forgot to take away his weapons.

  
After breakfast, Ezor followed him to his room and sat on the bed.  
“I know there are things you want to ask.” She said.

  
He sat down too.  
He thought some seconds about it and tipped his question down.  
“Why are you all so loyal to Lotor?”  
She smiled softly as if she had been expecting him to ask.

 

“He saved us.” She started. “Slavery still exists in some planets and he got to me before they sold me to a mine.” Her gaze was looking into a place he couldn’t see. “Zethrid was forced to fight in one of the arenas of the empire and Acxa’s father had sold her hand to a general when he found them. Narti,” She blinked, “prince Lotor rescued her from one of his mother’s laboratories.” She turned to look at the blue paladin. “I know you want the empire to go down, but it could be so much better if the prince was in charge. No slavery, torture, experiments, forced gladiator fights.” She shrugged. “Is there something else you want to ask?”

He asked if he was from space because her body was out of that world. She giggled.

 

That night, the click that locked the door didn’t sound. It was his second opportunity, he couldn’t waste it.  
Lance put on his paladin armor and the weapons he had been hiding in the bathroom. Even if he didn’t want to leave the tablet he knew it could have a tracker that would endanger his team.  
He waited for what he guessed was more or less two hours in which he passed around the dark room.  
The light in the corridor had gone off more than an hour ago.

He opened the door and stepped outside. He looked at the keyboards in the doors and decided that the big red button would lock them. The clicks that followed didn’t seem to wake anyone up.

He made his way to the empty cockpit and the hangar. It was open too.  
He had made it to the middle of the dark room when someone tackled him to the ground.

“Who are you and how did you…Lance?” Ezor looked confused. “You are going to escape,” she whispered. There was no need for a confirmation.  
She got off and let him get up.  
What was she waiting for? Wasn’t she going to take him to the others so they could finally throw him into a cell?

She sighed. “You didn’t really thought we would leave the ship unguarded while we sleep.”

She took his helmet off. “I was in the kitchen when it happened, wasn’t fast enough to stop you from escaping.”  
_What? Is she really saying…_  
“If it’s what you really want…” Was it? Did he want to go back to solitude? But they were the good guys, right? They had freed entire planets the galra had conquered and exploded. He was being held hostage by the enemy. They weren’t his friends. No, not at all. Lotor preferred persuasion after all.

He nodded.

Ezor smiled sadly and leaned forward so their mouths touched. “Good luck, Lancey.” She put the helmet back on his head and disappeared in the shadows. The hangar opened.

He just had to keep telling himself it had just been a trick.

_Open up, Red._ The particle shield dropped. The lion flew away from the ship.

He would be lying if he said he didn’t look back.

 

* * *

 

The team hadn’t expected Lance to just fly into the castle.  
They asked how he had escaped. He shrugged.  
They asked if he had been in a cell. He nodded.  
They asked if he had discovered anything about the enemy. He shook his head.

He owed Ezor that.  
Keith kept frowning at him, thought he didn’t say anything.

He didn’t attend to dinner. He saw no point in meeting the others when he couldn’t speak.

The next day it all went back to how it had been before his capture.

 

  
Keith knew something was off with Lance.  
The boy looked like if he had lost something.

Keith just _knew_ Lance was hiding something from them. But if he couldn’t explain why he thought that he couldn’t tell the team.

The red paladin had thought he wanted everything to go back to how it had been before Lotor appeared, so he could stop thinking his anger was what had gotten his teammate captured. But he didn’t like the situation.  
He just didn’t think he could lead Voltron.  
Not when there’s wasn’t any actual Voltron to lead.

 

Another week passed by training and staying at his room. He never ate with the others. And it all became part of who Lance was. And to them it just became as if the silence had always been there.

No one remembered the two weeks had passed long ago. And Lance gave up on that hope.


	3. Crushed Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not easy to convince Allura she is mistaken, much less when no one pays attention to your opinions. But even if they did, how could he crush her hope of not being one of the two last of her race?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the comments and kudos! They are really, really appreciated.

Lance had lost count of how many weeks had passed since the accident. He just kept doing whet he had been doing before being captured, and no one seemed to mind. Or care.  
Nothing important happened after that and no one questioned him further about his escape. The only noticeable difference was how Keith kept glaring at him the they crossed paths. Did Keith really hate him that much? He wasn’t someone to smile very often but one thing was a neutral glance and another thing a defensive glare. It bothered him because he had no idea what he had done, Lance didn’t tease or fight with the red paladin anymore, so why? If only he could ask. If only Keith would listen.

It was weird that Allura hadn’t really said anything about their inability to form Voltron, she spent most of her time on the control room, out of the castle with Blue, and discussing with Keith. They didn’t seem to be getting to anything.

And it all was even worse than before, because he didn’t even have Blue. The day he tried to talk to her while Allura was training, he had been answered with indifferent silence.

_Blue?_

_Are you mad at me?_

_Are you angry I didn’t tell the team about Lotor?_

_Blue? Please answer me._

  
_Don’t leave me alone._

_Do you- do you hate me?_

  
_I guess you do._

 

Had she actually cared or had it all so her paladin would be useful enough? Blue had a new, confident, powerful, wise, and talented pilot, so why care about her broken previous one? He hated it. He hated himself, because every time he thought about why everyone acted that way, he understood why, and it all made so much sense he couldn’t blame them.

Had anyone ever cared?

 

  
And he missed them. He missed the girls, knowing someone would go look for him every morning, that people would talk to him. That he could answer back.  
He missed not being alone; Lance craved contact, just someone noticing he was there. Was it really too much too ask for?  
He told himself again, and again, and again that leaving hadn’t been a mistake.

But his heart kept telling him otherwise.

If he could just stop his thoughts for a minute, turn his emotions off, maybe Lance would stop feeling like he was dying.

 

  
Hunk had stopped making food for him when he realized Lance preferred goop. And the taste wasn’t that bad after you got used to it (nothing is if you keep telling yourself it isn’t) and not hurting his throat with solids had helped it to heal.  
The bruise was gone, but that wasn’t something good, because there was nothing left to remind him that it hadn’t always been like that. and nothing to tell that something was wrong.  
He wished he had been the one to disappear instead of Shiro, the team would have been better off if it had been like that, and maybe that way they would have missed him, cared.  
Or maybe they wouldn’t, Lance didn’t know anymore.

And he was alone, because Red didn’t speak to him like Blue used to do. Her presence was there but she didn’t acknowledge him. She wanted Keith, he could feel it. He was just a replacement.

 

* * *

   
Allura had called them to the control room, so Lance knew something big was happening when he saw the alteans’s expressions. The others sat down but he didn’t, it wasn't usual to see Allura shocked, and they could have to go running to the lions any second.

There was a red alarm shinning in the middle of the screen and he started to regret not putting on his armor.

The signal was coming from one of King Alfor’s ships, they were told.

“Could it be? Are we not the last alteans alive?” The hope in Allura’s voice filled Lance with guilt, because he hadn’t, for a single second, believed it wasn’t a trap.  
It seemed that Keith thought the same, but it was impossible to convince the princess.

The next moment they were hovering in front of a shiny wormhole, and sending a probe to it. When it exploded Lance’s brain started yelling danger.  
But Allura kept insisting and no one seemed ready to crush her hopes.  
No one wanted to let her go alone.

Lance just hoped the lions were individually strong enough to withstand the quintessence.

Pidge was the one who ended up leading the mission with Hunk, the only ones who seemed to somehow understand what the huge literal rip in the fabric of space was.

As they crossed it, Lance could hear Coran yelling over the comms, the others kept going, and he did too.

And then, the man stopped talking and the light ahead revealed more infinite space.  
Not too much time later, they discovered the back of the ship was gone.

_I knew this was a bad idea._

“Guys, I’m detecting many biorhythms aboard the ship.”

“Alteans.” Barely a whisper, so filled with hope that Lance really wanted whatever was inside the ship to be what Allura thought and not enemies.

The ship was dark and looked like it hadn’t been used in some time, and the echoes (at least he supposed that’s what the sounds were) were creeping him out. Actually, the only one who seemed to be completely unafraid was Allura.  
Lance had never liked haunted houses, and much less haunted ships. The castle had almost given him a heart attack.

He noticed a blue suit leaning against a wall and took the helmet off. He met the empty sockets of a skeleton, gasped, and took a couple steps backwards dropping the helmet.  
_Oh my god, they died here._

No one really reacted to the body on the floor, Hunk audibly gulped. But there were all distracted when Allura managed to unlock a message in the controls. The face of a man who never returned to his home planet appeared, and the message ended with a scream.

“What happened here?” The yellow paladin simply voiced what everyone was thinking.  
“Still doesn’t explain the biorhythms.”

As if they were waiting for it, two armored figures dropped from the roof and landed gracefully. Their armours were grey with brilliant green details.  
Lance took out his sword just as Hunk tackled the smaller figure that seemed to have many legs.  
Keith attacked the human looking one, and was discarded with a kick that sent him stumbling, and was replaced by Lance, who dodged a flying object and hit it on the face with the hilt of his sword.  
The figure took some steps away from the threats just as the mask fell off revealing Shiro’s face.  
Everyone gaped at his lost teammate.  
The smaller figure freed itself from Hunk and backed away to stand next to Shiro.  
Who was pointing a gun at their faces.

“Shiro?”  
“How…?”

“Stay back!” Shiro ordered.

  
“If you came for the comet you’ll never get it. I’ll die before I let it fall into altean hands.” The small figure, who was revealed to be Slav, stated.

 

Keith deactivated his bayard, looking lost.  
“Shiro, please.”

 

“My name is not Shiro.” It came like a blow to the team. Did Shiro not remember? Where had he been, what had the galra done for him to forget?

But what Lance was thinking was, _altean hands?_

 

“Wha the heck is happening right now?” Hunk, even thought shocked as well, seemed to be the only one of the others to be able to speak. “Did everyone wake up with amnesia and weird accents?”

 

“…You know us?”

Silence.

 

“Yes, you are Shiro, the paladin of the Black Lion and you,” Hunk said looking at the multiple legged alien, “are Slav, we rescued you from a prison.”

Pidge, Lance noticed, seemed to be analyzing the situation.

 

“You’ve never rescued me from anything.” Slav spat. His eyes widened. “Unless…”

 

“You’re from an alternate reality.”  
“This is an alternate reality.”

 

“A what, now?”

  
“I think that went we passed the glowing are we entered an alternate reality,” she explained.

_So Slav wasn’t that crazy after all._

  
Allura took a step froward. “Why did you attack the captain and his crew?”

“Stay back, altean,” alternate Shiro said saying the last word as if it was a curse.

  
“We found the ship this way.” Just then, something on “Slav’s” wrist started to beep. “Oh, no. More alteans.”

 

“More alteans?” Allura was barely containing herself from yelling.

 

“Sven, “ so that was alternate Shiro’s name “let’s go!” Slav yelled as they climbed back into the roof. “If I were you, I’d run.”

Everyone was in a state of confusion.

 

“Did he said we are being boarded by alteans?” No one answered the princess as noises were heard behind the room’s door, and it opened revealing what Lance would have mistaken for galra sentries if not for the colors.

  
Two alteans, a young woman with pink hair and an old man, accompanied by a tall, bulky alien stood behind the robots as team Voltron was surrounded.  
“Put down your weapons!” The woman ordered, walking forward.

 

The princess gasped. “Alteans.”

 

The woman’s expression changed to one of incredibility. “It can’t be…” And then she kneeled in front of them as if she hadn’t been threatened them just seconds before. “Empress.”  
All the attackers followed her example. The paladins turned to stare at Allura in confusion.

  
“Okay, what is going on?”

Allura just kept staring.

  
“Are you empress Allura?” The woman asked.

  
“I am princess Allura. Please, stand.”

Allura stood there frozen, even if she had the usual confidence back in her voice.

 

“I am commander Hira, empress. How can you be here? You took down the Galra Uprising and stablished the Altean Empire ten thousand years ago.”

 

Keith was frowning at Hira. “Where we’re from, all alteans were wiped out by Zarkon, when he destroyed your planned,” he explained, sounding like a proper leader.

 

Hira’s eyes widened, the old man spoke. “Where did you come from?”

 

* * *

  
Not so long afterwards, they were in another room as Pidge got the alteans a sample of a comet caught between two realities, as she explained.

“Amazing. It’s Voltron.”

Everyone blinked.

Pidge and the old altean explained that it wan’t actually Voltron, but that it was made from the same material, as it had the same readings that had been used to find the Blue lion.

“So that’s why Voltron is so powerful.”

 

“With this material, Altea can create their own trans-reality traveling ships. We can spread our peace and stability to all realities.” The man spoke to the communicators, “General Hira, I have just stumbled across something in this ship hold’s that will ensure Altea’s rule for millennia to come.” There was something in the way the man said it that Lance didn’t like. He could see Pidge suspected as well. And he thought about Sven’s reaction to the alteans. Why run? Alteans were supposed to be the good guys right? But if anyone knew not everything was white or black, that was Lance himself.

  
The man started explaining about the current state of the universe.

“No struggle, no wars? That doesn’t sound possible.” And it didn’t, there couldn’t possibly be peace everywhere, all the time. There was something wrong. Lance resisted the urge to take out one of his weapons.

 

“Is it not? Look at Moxilous. For generations, his people have been in constant battle with the other planets in their system. It was a barbaric, futile existence. But look at him now.”

The only reaction the altean got was frowns from everyone.

 

“So what changed?” Hunk asked.

 

“The hoktril.” The man motioned Moxilous to turn turn around. Two metal pins and plate adorned the back of his skull.

_Oh, no. This is wrong, so wrong._

“Our civilization’s most advanced technological achievement.”

How could he talk about it that way? Sven and Slav had been so right. He needed to get Pidge and Hunk out of there before the altean ordered Moxilous to grab them so they too could be brainwashed. The Altean Empire was worst than the Galra. A empire build on lies. At least the purple aliens let people have their free wills.

 

“What does it exactly do?” The girl asked.

 

“It saps the fighting force from our enemies. Their will you might say,” he said it smiling, it only made it worse.  
Pidge and Hunk gasped, eyes wide, and tensed.

 

“You mean, slave labor?” Hunk carefully asked. Lance slowly reached for his bayard and gripped it highly on his hand. He kept his expression calm, so their enemies wouldn’t know anything was wrong. Good thing he was very good at that.

 

“Oh, no, no. They’re not slaves because they don’t have will,” the altean rapidly explained. “Slaves are always trying to escape or revolt. The non-cogs are content doing what they’re told.” He flicked his fingers and the non-cog turned around. “Preservation of life if the Altean Empire’s highest priority.” He leaned forward to stare at the piece of comet. “And with this material, we can do more than we ever thought possible.” There was a gleam in his eyes, Lance didn’t like it. Not a little bit.

Luckily, the man let them go to the corridor. Good, he had more time to plan.

 

Hunk and Pidge were uneasy.  
“There’s something off about these alteans.” Hunk started, he couldn’t finish as once again a piece of ship fell next to them.

 

“Yoo-hoo!” Came Sven’s voice. “Up here!”

 

pidge went directly to the point. “We gotta get to Keith and Allura and figure out a way to stop the alteans from getting the comet.”

 

“Already on it. We just need one more thing that you guys can help us with.” There was noise behind them, Slav gasped.

 

“Perfect!” the old altean spoke, as the paladins turned around to find robots surrounding them. “I had a feeling the Guns of Gamara were on this ship. But I didn’t know empress Allura’s friends would be working with them.”

 

 

  
They were captured and dragged to the room allura and Keith were in.

“What is going on?” the princess asked as she turned around to see the paladins surrounded by sentries.

 

“Empress, the Guns of Galmara have infiltrated this ship. This people were working with them.”

 

Keith looked like if he had been waiting for an opportunity to show his anger. “Let our friends go!”

 

“Hira, you and the rest of Altea have turned this universe into an army of slaves. Peace at the sake of freedom!” Slav declared.

 

The princess was taken aback.

“Slaves? Is this true?” She looked as if her world was crumbling down once again.

 

“Non- Cogs are not slaves!” the old altean stated. Keith was already in a fighting stance. “You’re the ones who spread chaos and destruction! We’re going to scan that little brain of yours and get every last rebel location. Finally our wars can end.”

 

“Allura, we cannot let this happen.” Keith looked as if he was holding himself from running at the sentries.

 

“Hira, please.” She said it as if she wanted it all to be a lie, a mistake. She needed it to be.

It wasn’t.

“We all want the same thing.”

 

“Do we? Your weakness has only brought pain to your people at the hands of the Galra. He have brought peace and order to ours. And with this comet, he will bring our peace to every reality. You’re no empress of mine.”

 

Allura’s expression changed, she was back to being a warrior, no one threatened her friends.  
“And you’re no altean.”

 

Keith and Allura’s bayards activated. Slav laughed.

Bombs went off all around the ship, the floor shook, chaos ensued, perfect for an escape.

“Just in time.”

Keith threw his sword at a sentry.

The captured paladins and rebels threw themselves at the other sentry. “Dog pile!”

Allura took down Hira. “Let’s go.”

 

  
They ran through the halls, sentries appeared in front of them and Hunk and Lance took them down.  
Lance heard a noise and turned to the left just in time to see more enemies, and dove behind the safety of the wall in front of him.

Slav got rid of the sentries throwing them into space. “Go to your lions, we’ll be fine.”

 

* * *

  
“This is all my fault.” The princess said as they floated to their ships. “I activated the ships.” It was her fault, but she wasn’t really the one to blame. “They’re going to dislodge the comet and use it to terrorize every reality.”

 

“No!” Slav’s face appeared on the comms. “You can still get the comet away from them.”

 

“Pidge, scan for the comet.” Keith ordered.

  
“Yep, already picked up it’s elemental signature.”

  
“We’re going back in to get it. Form Voltron!”

What? Had Keith forgotten they couldn’t? What was he thinking?

Everyone followed the order and started to fly in formation.

_Okay, calm down. This may be my fault so I just need to remember how it was before. We’re a team, we need to stop the alteans form brainwashing everyone, we have to from Voltron. Okay, breathe, forget about everything that happened. Just pretend._

Somehow, Lance thinking about the past and Allura being very decided on saving their universe from the miscarried alteans were enough to form Voltron, Lance doubted it would work again, thought.

They broke into the ship and took the comet. Pidge started searching for the portal’s previous location while their enemies shoot from behind.  
“I found it!”

But crossing wasn’t easy and the comet opposed resistance, a final shot from the alteans was all it took to push them across realities.

 

White.

 

 

Then, more space.

But Voltron was not in condition to fight, and Lotor attacked. Voltron just floated paralyzed as the prince stole the comet.  
Lance snapped out of the daze just in time to see the black and purple ship get away.

_You gotta be kidding me._

“Paladins, are you okay?” Came Coran’s worried voice, worried for them of course, he had no idea how important the comet was. He could hear everyone waking up.

 

“Coran,” A tired whisper, crossing had left them exhausted, “We’re here.”

 

 

* * *

 

  
Lance felt betrayed, he didn’t really now why but he felt like their enemies had somehow betrayed his trust. He knew they had always made it clear what their positions were, and that Lotor, the leader the girls couldn’t disobey, had barely spoken to him and hadn’t stablished any further contact with him than that of a prisoner. But still…

No. The doubt going around his head was what the prince had wanted, and he couldn’t allow it. Maybe the girls had been honest, but Lotor had planned it all, always one step ahead, Lance had to focus and do his job as a paladin. Never mind the empty feeling on his chest that seemed to be getting bigger, like a hole swallowing him from inside out.

 

* * *

  

And the day came, Lance had been waiting for it, for so long. But that wasn’t how he had imagined it to go, it was just so disappointing. He wished it hadn’t come, because that way his hope wouldn’t have been crushed the way it was when the team finally noticed the two weeks had passed.  
How could they disappoint him so many times? Why?

  
It happened during another reunion with the Blade of Marmora, to speak about the comet and the fact that Lotor had it and they had no idea where the prince was hiding.

“It seems we need to find the prince’s ship as soon as possible.”

They continued discussing ways of locating their enemies and how to proceed in case they found Lotor when either were by themselves. Allura constantly voiced her opinion and Keith was asked his as well, Pidge gave technical information, and Hunk made comments here and there, one regarding the modifications the Marmora would need to make to their ships in order to carry the comet if the occasion came.

The meeting ended with the Marmora promising to look out for Lotor and contact Voltron if any news about him came to them, and adding the equipment Hunk had suggested to their main ships.

The Galra were about to leave when Kolivan turned to look at Lance, who had been sitting silently watching the reunion. “What does the blue paladin think of all this?”

Lance blinked surprised, already used to being ignored during meetings. He smiled nervously at the galra and pointed at his throat and then shook his head.

“Oh, I see.”

 

But then he noticed how the team was staring at him in confusion. “Lance, what is it?” Allura asked.

 

And then, he could literally pinpoint the second when Coran remembered, his eyes widened and he gaped at Lance.  
“Oh, gods. I think it’s better if you leave right now, we are grateful you traveled to meet us but we have some personal matters to attend to,” the man said.

Kolivan didn’t question him and with a “Until next time,” he and the others galrans left.

 

Everyone was frowning at Coran.

“What personal matters?” Allura asked.

Coran ignored her, which was shocking for everyone, and walked to Lance, grabbed him by the shoulders and made him stand up before hugging the boy.

 

“Coran?” Pidge asked.

 

And Lance realized, as his hope was crushed, that they didn’t even remember what was wrong. That they had become so used to it they had forgotten. It must have shown on his face because Keith, _Keith_ , asked, “Lance, you okay?”

He wanted to run out of the room and lock himself in his bedroom. But he just stayed there, letting Coran hug him without hugging back.  
The man finally let go and met his eyes with sorrow filled ones.

 

“What’s going on?” Hunk was the one to ask that time.

Why didn’t they realize it? Why?

 

“Oh, Lance, I am so sorry.”

“What?”  
“Hey, what’s going on?”  
“Coran?”

 

And then the princess paled, Lance had never seen her like that, not even when she discovered her entire race was gone, her composure gone, her hands raised to cover her mouth.  
“Oh gods, no.”

 

Keith followed. “No…”

 

“Hey, guys I think I’m missing somethi- Oh. Fuck.” No one told Pidge to watch her language, the girl went pale too.

 

Hunk didn’t say anything but the utter silence in the control room was enough to tell everyone had realized it.

Lance was feeling sick, he wanted to throw up, he wanted to scream, do something.  
He had though they had forgotten about the date, not about the fact that he was fucking mute. It was worse than the silence, the loneliness, worse, worse a hundred times.

How could they?

Everyone was afraid to break the silence.

 

Coran was the fist to speak. “I will put you in the pod right away, the swelling is probably more than gone.”

Lance was frozen, he just couldn’t believe it.

_How could you. How could you. How could you. How could you. How could you. How could you. How could you. How could you._

Sure, it had been weeks, maybe even months since the accident, he had stopped counting the days; it had been weeks since anyone asked him accidentally to speak; weeks since he heard them comment about the silence; but that, he had never imagined it.

 

They were speaking.

“Lance, I’m so sorry. We are awful teammates, we- I- I’m so sorry.”  
“Oh shit, I’m a terrible person. I’m sorry, so sorry.”  
“Oh, God, I’m so sorry, I’m supposed to be your best friend, I don’t deserve you.”  
“Lance, I- I should have remembered.”

 

He didn’t care, let them drown in their guilt, suffer for a while. They would just get over it, get him into the pod and tell themselves excuses. None of them really cared.

He snapped and ran out of the room, maybe they followed, he didn’t know. He locked the door to his room and did the only thing that calmed him. The water was cold as it fell on him on the shower, good, he needed to feel alive.

He caught himself in the mirror and stared at it. His throat looked fine, no scar, no anything. But it was broken, and no one saw it. He punched the mirror but it didn’t even crack, the pain wasn’t enough to distract him from his emotional turmoil.

 

That night, Lance cried.

 

* * *

 

The next morning someone knocking on his door woke him up.

“Lance, the pod is ready.” It was Coran.

He decided that he wasn’t that mad at them, that all the thoughts he had had were just from the anger. He didn’t want them to suffer, not really. Maybe it would be easier if he did, but nothing was easy, was it?

He went with his pajamas, he would have to put the special suit anyways so why bother.

Everyone was in the pod’s room. All nervous and ashamed. He smiled at them and waved, it would be easier for all of them if he pretended.

Not so long after he was in the pod, the door closet and his eyes did too.

 

  
Blackness.

 

  
He woke up just as he slumped on Keith. “Careful.” He helped him sit and everyone soon surrounded him.

“Can you try, Lance?”

 

He gulped and tried. “Yes.” His voice was rough and strained from disuse. He suppressed the excitement that came at hearing it.

“Oh.” Everyone seemed shocked. They shouldn’t be. He stood up and left the room, to hell with pretending.

 

 

He evaluated his actions as he stayed on his bed for most of the day. He had overreacted, he should have seen it coming. No point in getting angry at the team when that would put in danger their missions, and in turn innocent people, and that was why he was staying, for the people they would help, because otherwise, there was no other reason for him to stay.

 

But no missions came and he returned to his routine, when he found someone in the hallways he ignored them and walked away. One thing was not snapping at them and another thing was being friendly. They were teammates not friends, they had made it very clear.  
He practiced using his voice in his room so if he ever needed it it would work, but he never spoke to the others.  
They had to earn it.

 

* * *

 

They had made an horrible mistake, and days passed and no one seemed to be able to do anything about it. Lance avoided them and ignored their calls, they deserved it, but something had to be done or Voltron would never be formed again.  
And that’s what they were doing, reunited in the dinning room, after checking Lance was busy training.

 

“We have to do something,” Pidge stated.

 

“But of course he’s mad at us! He should be yelling at us!” Hunk said.

  
“But he is not, and it worries me. His voice is back, but everything is the same, is the damage too deep?” the princess spoke.

 

Coran sighed. “Maybe. For weeks we left him all alone, we don’t know the extends of what that can do to a person, especially one that used to be as talkative as Lance.”

  
“None of us know what happened when he was captured, we never asked, what if he was tortured?” Keith interjected.  
Everyone’s eyes widened.

  
“Oh, gods, we never even asked. We are awful teammates,” the princess lamented.

  
Hunk sighed. “I guess we just have to keep trying to talk to him, there’s not much else we can do.”

  
“We really fucked up, didn’t we?” No one contradicted Pidge.

 

* * *

  
The days passed and the paladins kept trying to talk to him.

  
Then one day, Shiro appeared.  
It wasn’t long until Lance realized something was wrong.

 

 

 

* * *

* * *

 

Next Chapter Preview

_"You," He said, his fist still raised as the man touched the part of his face that had been hit and stared at him with wide eyes, just as everyone else in the room. They were all surprised to hear his voice. "You are not Shiro."_

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this wasn't a good chapter, 'cause I basically had to rewrite S3E4, but I had to get this done to continue with the more interesting part of the story.
> 
> Also, the scene where the team realize Lance's procedure date had passed a long time ago was based on a comment made by @buttonfanatic on the same post this story is based on.
> 
> Another thing, there's this headcannon that Lance doesn't swear because of being used to being around kids, and instead says things like "heck" and "freaking" and, you know the stuff he says in the series like "this castle has gone apple and bananas" and all of that.So in this fanfic, when Lance swears even if is just in his thoughts, it's because he's very upset. And if he ever swears audibly in the upcoming chapters (spoiler: he will) it's like a really big deal.
> 
> Next chapter will be up next Sunday! Any suggestions or ideas are more than welcome as I have a general idea of how this story will go, but not the details, so please let me know your opinions.


	4. Punch to The Face

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Lance sees the girls again, Keith discovers more of what's going on, Shiro is not actually Shiro, and things don't go as planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I'm really sorry I didn't update on Sunday! But this weekend I will.
> 
> Second, thanks for everyone who commented and left kudos!

One day, Keith just came back from searching for Shiro, walked into the control room, were Allura and Pidge were, with a exhausted Shiro leaning on his shoulder; and said, “I found him.”  
The girls stood there speechless.

  
“I’m… back,” Shiro panted. That’s when Lance, who was walking by the corridor, burst into the room.

  
_Shiro?!_

  
The man turned to look at him. “Hey.” He looked like he was going to pass out.

Lance hurried to stand next to the former black paladin so he could lean on him too.

 

“Shiro…” Pidge managed.

  
Allura smiled “Take him to his room to rest, I’m glad you are back.”

  
A tired smile. “I’m glad I’m back.”

 

 

They took Shiro to his room as Allura had instructed, and Keith said he was going to go look for Coran so he could check Shiro’s health.  
He didn’t even once glare at Lance as he had been doing for weeks, his attention in Shiro. The blue paladin had to admit he felt relieved, but couldn’t help but think that once Shiro’s arrival stopped being news (and he knew they would, soon), Keith would go back to being hostile.

So, he was in the room with the exhausted man who looked like remaining sitting on the bed was an effort.  
“Were you… Could you form Voltron?”  
He couldn’t tell at all if Shiro was sad or not at the idea, there was something different in his eyes. And the hair, there was no way Shiro could grow it so long in a couple months, not without experimentation. So what had happened to Shiro during all that time? Had he been with the galra? He couldn’t ask, not yet.

He nodded. Shiro just closed his eyes. “That’s good.”

Before the silence could extent too much, Keith and Coran came and they took Shiro to one of the pods. Lance was left alone.

 

Some hours later, he walked pass the dinning room to go train, when he saw Shiro eating there. He didn’t join the team, but he felt hurt that no one had bothered to tell him their previous leader had left the pod.  
_Why am I surprised?_  
Did they think he didn’t care? Because one thing that, unfortunately, had never changed was how much he cared for each of them; Shiro was the closest think he had to an older brother, or maybe even a father, in space. So yes, he cared.

He would soon learn the feeling was not returned.

 

No one liked the fact that they still had to do the mission they had planned, not with Shiro just back and with them not knowing anything of what had happened to him.  
They took the base, it wasn’t hard.

And then, Keith organized a meeting to tell them what he had gotten out of Shiro, he had been with the galra.

The meeting was barely finished, when Shiro came into the control room, with a new look. And Lance thought there was no way that was the same Shiro. The clothes, the haircut; it looked wrong. No one seemed to find it odd, thought. But if someone in the ship had a sense of fashion aside from Allura and himself, that was Shiro. But that, what he was seeing, was just plain bad taste.

And then, Pidge started explaining a way to find Lotor, started discussing with Hunk, and they both left the room to work on it. Keith looked just as confused about what the green and yellow paladins had said as he himself was.  
And then, just as if the day before he hadn’t looked like he was going to shatter, Shiro started planning and giving orders. Did that mean he was back to being the leader? Lance didn’t know.

 

That night, in his room, Lance realized that there was one paladin too many. And that the obvious option to step aside was himself. He had known the day would come for months. He was the seventh wheel, the broken paladin, the one who was always away from the group, the replacement. It seemed that his time was finally over.  
Maybe it would be for the better. It kind of shocked him when he realized he actually thought that.

  
And then, in the middle of the night, Hunk called them to the control room. They had found Lotor, and he was in some base in a planet, or at least the comet was. Shiro took the leadership and Keith didn’t seem to mind at all.  
The plan was to wait until the transfer, but instead of that, the ship with the comet attacked the base.

_So Lotor’s opposers._

Everyone else was really confused, and were in need of an explanation to make a plan, but he couldn’t tell them anything without revealing he had lied. He didn’t want to have to fight the girls.

They headed to their lions. It was his time to step aside. Keith’s intention had been to stay, but Lance caught his glance, pointed at Red, and motioned for Keith to go. The former red paladin looked surprised, and then unsure, Keith didn’t trust Lance. Did he suspect? But it wasn’t the time for that, so Lance pointed again at Red.

“Go.”

Keith blinked, and headed to his lion. Lance stood there and watched it go.

 

  
Lance headed to the control room, and saw Coran’s looks of surprise when the man saw him. Not too long after that, Shiro’s voice spoke over the comms.

“Keith I’ll need you to lead this mission.”

 

“What? What’s wrong? I’m piloting Red.”

 

Shiro was speechless for a minute. “The Black Lion isn’t responding to me.”

_No. If they can’t form Voltron, they won’t have a chance if they have to fight Lotor._

Lance went down, not bothering to hear the rest of the conversation.

Shiro was getting out of the lion, distressed. He looked up.  
“Lance! I can’t- I think Keith’s his true paladin.”

Maybe he just needed a confidence boost.

 

“Shiro, you’re her paladin. You just gotta believe it.” The man didn’t show the slightest surprise at hearing Lance’s voice.

  
“I don’t think that’ll work.”

 

Lance walked to Black. “It will. Try again. He’s your paladin, right, girl?” He spoke, patting one of the lions paws.  
It came to life, roaring. Shiro took an involuntary step back.

_What? How-_

 

Shiro looked from him to the lion. “Go in.”

Kind of in a daze, Lance did so. What was going on? What was Black responding to him and not Shiro? If she hadn’t responded before, why then?

He sat down and grabbed the controls. He flew out of the castle. He couldn’t believe it.

 

“Shiro?” Pidge’s voice.

 

Said man answered for him. “No, Lance is in Black. Wait for him.”

 

“What?”  
_“Lance?”_

 

He himself couldn’t believed it either, so he couldn’t blame them for being surprised.

He reached the other lions and they all went down to the planet and approached the base in the smaller ships.

They went in, Shiro commanding them. He ignored the glances the others send him more than once.

They didn’t find any enemies, and instead of the comet, a ship.

“It should be right here.”

He had to admit Lotor knew how to work fast.

 

“I think the ship is the comet”, Hunk said.

  
“No, this can’t be! He has already made a ship from the comet’s ore?”

 

Shiro interrupted, “Guys, there’s a piece of the teludav inside the galra base.”

 

“But they would never be able to operate it without an altean-“ Allura gasped, her eyes widening. “Zarkon’s witch! She had altean markings.”

Maybe it was more than they could handle in their state.

 

“Lotor is nearby. We must find him and take him out for good.” Keith said

_Last time you said that it didn’t go very well._

 

“Team, you cannot let Lotor get that ship. You need Voltron,” Shiro spoke again over the comms.  
_Are you kidding? Last time it barely worked and I just changed lions! Again! I don’t even know how to be the head!_

 

“ Why take out one ship when we can’t stop all of this by taking Lotor out himself?” Seriously, Lance didn’t understand what Keith had against Lotor, he didn’t even know the guy.

 

Luckily, Shiro was there to stop Keith, “That’s exactly why we can’t risk Lotor having that ship. This is too important.”

  
And Allura too, “Keith, I want to stop Lotor as much as you, but Shiro has a point.”

 

Keith stopped himself from arguing. “Okay, you guys go back to the lions. I’m gonna search the ship for Lotor.”

 

“Keith, you need to stick together.”

A chorus of agreement. Keith didn’t like it. Why was he so determined to end Lotor? He hadn’t been the one to capture Shiro, or the Holts, and the guy hadn’t even killed anyone or anything like that, that they knew off. For what Lance knew, it was just stubbornness.

 

“Fine, let’s move.”

 

They were heading to the exit, when the door opened, revealing the generals. They looked ready to fight, or at least that was until they saw Lance at the back of the group. Surprise flickered on Zethrid’s and Acxa’s faces for a second, Narti remained seemingly indifferent, and Ezor’s eyes widened for a moment before she smiled. For everyone else, it probably looked like a predatory grin, but Lance knew better.

The team gasped. Zethrid, showing her incredible strength, jumped some meters to strike Allura, who jumped away just in time to avoid being crushed. Dust filled the area, and Narti used it as a distraction to attack Pidge and Hunk, who were not ready.

Lance just stood there, watching, not knowing what to do. No one attacked him for some time, so he watched as Acxa and Keith fought until Ezor attacked the red paladin as well, her smile turned into grin. She threw a knife, but Keith managed to block it just in time.

What was the right thing to do? He didn’t want to take a side, but he had to. The team was in disadvantage, but he didn’t know if he would be able to hurt any of Lotor’s generals. Well, he could pretend.

He used his bayard to shot at Ezor, close enough so it would be credible, but not as much to actually hit her. She turned to look at him, no surprise in her eyes. Did she think he would attack her? Lance could tell the girls didn’t want to attack him either, or else he wouldn’t be the only member of the team who wasn’t getting his ass kicked.

The fight around him was forgotten as Ezor charged at him, he took his sword out, dodged and blocked, but he could tell she didn’t really mean the attacks. Neither’s hits had strength, and neither's were fast enough.  
She got closer for a second. “Let’s put up a good act.” So they kept doing something that would be better described as sparring. “Let me grab your bayard so you can have an excuse to follow me outside so we can’t talk.” He nodded.

He let her land a kick that send him to the ground, and his bayard unprotected for she to take. Ezor grabbed it, and ran out of the room into the corridor. Lance followed.

He followed her down two corridors before she took a sharp turn and stopped. He waited in case the team was looking for him, but the only sounds over the comms was the sound of battle. He turned it off, and removed his helmet.

Ezor jumped to hug him. She held him for some seconds before letting go. “Long time no see, Lancey.”

 

He internally praised himself for having the idea to practice with his voice. “How’s everything in the ship?”

  
Ezor gasped, blinked, and then smiled broadly. “You got it back! I love it!” He felt something in his chest, something good, at those words.

  
“Thanks. So what did you want to talk ‘bout? I’m basically committing treason right now.”

 

Apparently her armor had pockets, because she took a small, green bag from somewhere inside it. “Prince Lotor sends his regards, and sent this gift to you. You making use of the skin care products in the bathroom didn’t go unnoticed.”

 

Unbelievable. His enemy was sending him beauty products. He took the bag and put it in a pocket in his suit. “Tell him I said thanks.” She nodded.

 

“So, how are you all doing?”  
Ezor smiled again. “I’m… back with Acxa. Everyone was sad when you left and, well, she was there for me.”  
Lance smiled back at her. “That’s great!”  
“You really think so?”  
“Totally… Ez.”  
She glared at him. “Seriously?”  
“It’s only fair.”  
“I’m never calling you Lance again, you hear me, Lancey?”  
He laughed. “Oh, come on. Ez sounds much cooler than Lancey.”  
“Well, yes. But this is how this friendship works,” she stated.  
“Can’t argue with that.”

Then her expression softened. “It’s really good to see you. You’ve got a lovely voice, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

_Annoying, loud._

“Yeah…”

 

Ezor frowned. “You don’t look like you’re okay.”  
He didn’t reply. “Zethrid said Narti was worried for you, and that’s not something that happens very often. It’s your team treating you-“

  
“No.”

  
She reached to put a hand on his shoulder. “Lance, are you-“

 

“Lance, is that you?!” It was Keith, maybe turning off the comms completely hadn’t been the best idea.

Keith appeared on the corner just as Ezor made as if to kick Lance, slow enough so he reacted in time to pull his shield up.

“Lance!” Keith said as he joined the ‘fight’. He tried to land a blow on Ezor while she and Lance put up the act.  
After a couple minutes in which neither party was loosing, Ezor seemed to hear something and ran bak to the ship room, leaving the boys alone in the hallway.

“You weren’t answering the comms!” Keith looked at the helmet on the ground and frowned. “How did she even manage to take it off?”  
Lance shrugged, picked up the helmet, put it on, and turned the comms back on.

“Why was it off? Are you-“

  
“Keith, go back to the lions! They got the ship!” Shiro ordered. Keith looked like he wanted to keep ‘discussing’, but ran to were the team was, looking tired, after giving Lance a wary glance. The blue paladin followed.

 

“Where were you?” asked Pidge, “They got the ship! We couldn’t take them down!”  
Keith answered by glaring at Lance.

 

Over the comms, Coran spoke. “They’ve got the teludav as well!”

 

The team hurried to the lions. Lance couldn’t stop thinking about the bag on his armor, it was definitely treason, and Keith knew.

What had he gotten himself into?

They reached the lions, but Keith was ahead and headed to Black, so Lance went to Red, who opened up for him. But before he got in, he noticed Keith wasn’t inside of Black yet. She wasn’t opening up for him.  
“What?” said paladin muttered. Black remained inactive. Keith grunted and headed to Red, she didn’t show any objections to letting him in.

Why was Black not opening up for Keith? And why did she do it for him? Lance hovered to the Black Lion, and she didn’t hesitate to open up for him. What had changed?

_Everything._

They heard Coran say something about the particle barrier as they flew in formation. Lance couldn’t believe he was going to be the head, he had always wanted to, but he had come to accept that it just wasn’t for him. Or at least it had seemed like so.

If it continued like that, he would end up piloting every lion.

He thought about how, after all they had been through, Blue had rejected him; and about Red’s cold indifference. Black had chosen him, her caring presence was comforting.

 _‘Trust yourself’,_ easier said than done.

Some time before, he would have given everything for that moment, for piloting Black, for being chosen for something. But the idea didn’t excite him as much as he knew it would have before. Not when it was accompanied by the doubts and uncertainty of his teammates. They found it odd, they didn’t think he could do it.

_Let’s prove them wrong, girl._

Lance closed his eyes and focussed on how much he had wanted it, how he had dreamed of that. But the feeling wasn’t nearly the same anymore.

_Sometimes you just gotta lie to yourself._

And Voltron came into existence.

They attacked the enemy ship to defeat the castle, and then he thought about forming the sword, but he remembered he had the red bayard and not the black one.

 _‘Do it’,_ the lion said.

_How does this even work anymore?_

The glowing sword appeared, no one said anything. He attacked but the ship dodged every strike.

  
“Ugh, it’s too fast!” Keith said.

  
“You have to stop them from getting the teludav!” Shiro shouted.

 

Keith didn’t need to be told twice, he knew they couldn’t beat the ship. So he started looking for the right moment to attack the cargo ship.

 

“But we can take the ship down!” Why did Keith had an obsession with destroying the generals? Luckily, Lance was the head.

 

“The teludav is more important”, Shiro replied.

 

Before the discussion could continue, Lance flew to the cargo ship, and using the moment of surprise, slashed it.

The ship stayed still for some seconds before leaving, followed by the cargo ship.

They had won the battle.

 

* * *

 

Back in the castle, they met in the control room. Coran was smiling. “Good job, Lance.”

 

The others, excluding Shiro, looked uncomfortable. “Yeah.” “Good job, man.” “Yes.” And a huff from Keith.

 

Allura said it would be better if everyone went to rest, so the team left to do their things. Lance noticed Keith headed to were Black was, and decided to follow.  
The former red paladin stood in front of the lion, looking up at her, as if waiting for something, but it didn’t come. She remained inactive.

Suddenly, Black came to life and glanced to were Lance was standing. Keith turned around and instantly spotted him.

 

“You”, he hissed. “You are betraying us, aren’t you?”

Lance just stared, not knowing what to say or how to react. He didn’t think he could lie to Keith’s face, but he couldn’t tell him what was happening either.

“Answer me!” He couldn’t explain it, not without letting them know how he felt, how he had felt. He didn’t want the team to know that part of his loyalty had gone to the first people that were kind to him. Because that’s what had happened, right?

“Why?!” Keith clenched his fists. Lance wondered if anyone could hear his shouts. “Why did you betray us? What did Lotor do to you?”

_They became my friends._

“Torture, brainwashing? Did they offer you power?” Did Keith really think that low of him? But the red paladin wasn’t finished. “What did you tell them? Is that why he’s always ahead of us? Since when?” But no question was answered. “Did you tell them about Pidge’s family? Shiro?”

 _Of course not!_ But the words were stuck in his throat.

“You can speak now! Stop acting like you’re mute!” Keith’s expression changed, regretting the words.  
The blue paladin's indifferent face changed, revealing a wounded expression, his eyes wide and his mouth sightly open. He took a step backwards.

“Lance, I…” Keith clenched his fists tighter and looked to the ground. So he was too proud even for that.

The Black Lion stood up and growled.  
The red paladin turned around, shocked.  
“I just don’t get it. Why?” Black stomped her foot as a warning. Keith glanced one last time at Lance before leaving.

Lance went into Black and curled into a ball on the pilot seat.

_Thanks._

The lion purred.

Why did that kept happening? Every time he thought it was getting better, something happened. Something that made his little self confidence shatter like thin glass. Why did they keep hurting him when he just wanted the best for them? Why nothing good could happen with something bad following just for once? Why? Why him?

_‘Stop acting like you’re mute!’_

He flinched and took a shaky breath.

He couldn’t blame the half-galran. If the places had been switched, he knew he would have also been mad.  
He stayed in Black for some time.

 

* * *

  

Keith was already regretting his words. Every single one of them. He didn’t even know where all that anger had come from.  
He should had stayed and found out what was going on with the blue paladin. He should have done it long time before.  
But he had forgotten.

What if Lance had actually been tortured, or somehow brainwashed? What if he needed help? He knew Lance was, used to be, someone who sought praise, but not like that. So there had to be another explanation.

Keith couldn’t believe they hadn’t even checked Lance’s health after he escaped. They hadn’t asked, they hadn’t cared. _He_ hadn’t.

And what he had said, it had wounded Lance; the words had been enough to shatter the mask Keith hadn’t noticed until then he was wearing. It had happened right in front of his eyes, because of him. He had seen the pain, and had decided to escape.

_Idiot. Coward._

He had to find what was wrong with Lance. He would.

But then, something else happened.

 

* * *

 

Shiro came into the room and stood in front of the lion, that had turned off.

Black didn’t activate, but Lance could feel she was uneasy. For some reason, she didn’t like Shiro. She felt threatened. But why? After all, he was her paladin.  
Lance knew something was off with the man, but as he seemed to be the only one who had noticed, he had decided to forget about it. But apparently, Black agreed with him. What he didn’t know was what was the thing that was off.

Images flashed in his head. Cables, water, a giant glass tube. Something inside. Something that grew and grew until it had humanoid shape. It was some kind of alien.

_A clone?!_

Lance stared open-mouthed as Shiro sighed and left.

A clone. That explained it. But even in space with mind controlling machines and literal magic it seemed somehow unreal.  
So a clone. But did the clone knew what he was? Back on earth Lance had watched enough shows and movies to know that there was the possibility that the clone thought he was the actual Shiro. Which made things worse because it meant he was innocent.

He would have to find the right time to tell the team. It would shock them, knowing that their leader was still missing, that he had been experimented on, and that they had been tricked like that.

So he would have to choose the moment carefully.

Apparently plans never went as planned.

 

* * *

 

The team, excluding the blue and red paladins, met at the dinning room that night.

“I am worried Lance still will not talk. Not even during the mission,” Allura said.

 

“And he went missing for some time”, Pidge added. “We should do a meeting to talk to him, but all of us at once so he doesn’t, well, escape.”

 

Everyone nodded.

“Talk about what?” They turned to look at Shiro, frowning.

 

“He lost his voice for some… time. But now he has it back but won’t speak,” the younger girl explained.

 

“Surely you had noticed he hasn’t spoken?” Coran said.

  
Shiro blinked, looking confused. “Yeah… Of course.”

 

Everyone glanced at him oddly. At last, Allura announced, “We will met tomorrow.”

 

* * *

  

The next day, they met to analyze the information they had about the comet. Lance ,as usual, didn’t join the conversation.

Allura was talking about how the comet ship’s blast had been a little bit similar to the spell the witch had used when he disappeared, and asked Shiro if he remembered.

“Yes, I… remember. But not very clearly.”

_Liar._

He knew he had planned to wait for a good moment. But he just couldn’t stand the thought of Shiro being trapped and experimented on, and that that clone was walking around, pretending to be him. He wasn’t caring like Shiro and he only seemed to care about the missions. And they were all buying it.

 

“I think that perhaps-“ Allura stopped herself as she saw Lance stand up, fists clenched.  
Everyone stared as he walked to Shiro, and swiftly punched him in the face. Hard.

 

“You,” he said, his fist still raised as the man touched the part of his face that had been hit and stared at him with wide eyes, just as everyone else in the room. They were all surprised to hear his voice. “are not Shiro.”  
A bruise was already forming on the man’s face.

 

Hunk laughed nervously. “What do you mean? Of course he’s Shiro.” They were all looking at him as if he was crazy.

  
Coran cleared his throat. “The pod clearly showed he has Shiro’s DNA.”  
Keith walked to the man and placed a hand on his shoulder, frowning at Lance.

 

“He’s a clone.”

“What?” The general reaction.

 

“Black told me.”

 

Allura gasped. “That’s why she didn’t let him in.”

 

‘Shiro’ staggered backwards. “I-I’m not a clone. I-I can’t be.” He looked so broken and confused, Lance felt bad for him. He knew the clone hadn’t known what he was, but it only made everything more difficult. What would they do with him?

Allura and Pidge reached for their bayards.

 

“No.” Lance said, and for some reason they stopped. “He didn’t know.”

 

The clone’s face was one of horror. “No. I-I…” He shock his head. “No…”

The team was looking at him with pity. Then, false Shiro blinked. “I saw him. The-“ he gulped, “real Shiro. The galra have him.”

They didn’t liked the news, but no one was surprised.

 

“We have to find him," Pidge said.

Silence. They had already tried and hadn’t been able to.

 

“Kuron,” Keith whispered. Everyone turned to look at him. “That’s how you say clone in Japanese”, he explained.

  
“Kuron, huh? I think it suits you,” Pidge said to the clone. They were taking the news better than Lance had expected them to.

 

“We should go to the pods so we can run a examination on you,” Coran told Kuron. “And we can’t get rid of that bruise as well.”

  
Lance glanced at the clone. “Sorry,” Kuron shock his head.

 

Allura sighed. “I think this meeting is over, then. We’ll talk about the comet later.” And she followed the two mans to the pods. Pidge and Hunk stayed in the control room, examining the information, and Keith left to the pods as well.

Lance went to his bedroom.

All they had planned about talking to Lance was forgotten. Again. But after all, he had spoken, hadn’t he?  
Lance went back to not speaking after that.

 

* * *

 

Back in his bedroom, Lance remembered about the bag.

He took it to the bathroom and opened it. Inside, there were three containers filled with creams: one white, one blue, and one purple. They were the products he had been used back in the enemy ship, he couldn’t believe Lotor had actually send them to him.

He applied the white one first, and then the purple one. He lied on his bed as he waited for the blue one to dry, before taking a shower. He felt refreshed. It was nice.

_Well, thanks, Lotor._

Falling asleep that night was easier than he had expected.

 

* * *

   
The next morning, he followed his usual routine: goop, training, more goop, more training, and going to the pool as an addition.  
Lance didn’t fail to notice how everyone was back to their routines and how they treated Kuron hadn’t changed much. Apparently, they trusted the clone to wander the castle alone. He hoped the consequences of that wouldn’t be too big.

And again, no one informed Lance about how the examination had gone. Not even when he had been the one to discover Kuron was a clone in the first place. But he was used to it.

To his usual activities, just add another person to avoid while wandering the corridors, and that’s how Lance spend the following week. He was really good at avoiding people.

And Lotor was nowhere in sight.

 

* * *

  
During dinner, three days after discovering Kuron was a clone, the man suggested that they should know their enemy better and how it all had started to know how to proceed. So Coran told them the tale, if it could be called that, of the paladins of old, the rift, Zarkon, and Honerva.  
They agreed they would tell Lance later, as he too needed to know. But they didn’t.

They should have.

 

* * *

* * *

 

_Next Chapter Preview_

_"Fuck you, Keith." he glanced around and met the eyes of every single one of them. "Fuck all of you."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So tell me what you thought about this chapter!  
> Now comes the fun part with all season 3 episodes already rewritten. What do you think will happen based on the short preview?


	5. He Had It Coming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance makes a decision. and the team doesn't like it. At all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can blame this chapter being late on my terrible wi-fi signal. Sorry, guys.

The next mission had to do with finding more information about Shiro, it was as if they were going in circles, a cycle that had started once again.  
The base was in another rocky planet like many others, but it didn’t have any inhabitants other than wild creatures, which was good, because they weren’t yet ready for a mission that big.  
And again, it was Pidge, Hunk, and him. Lance hoped the cycle didn’t include him getting injured again.  
They got the information, and they were heading out, nothing bad so far, just another base run by normal sentries. They had come in Green and Yellow only, the head of the bigger lion was sticking through the wall.  
Pidge was the first to leave. Their guard was down, and it all happened too fast.

It was dark so they didn’t see him coming, he didn’t make a noise, he was good at sneaking. They should have been more careful, should have never given their back to the hallway. And they were lucky, so lucky, that the soldier didn’t have a good aim, not good enough to kill instantly, at least.  
Two blasts.  
Two holes through the yellow paladin’s middle.  
Two seconds it’s what it took Lance to shoot the guard, who had been in charge of the base, with a much better aim.  
Two seconds it took for the noise of upcoming enemies to fill the halls, with the echoes of the metal of many sentries.

He knew he couldn’t beat that many while defending Hunk, the lion wouldn’t work, Pidge wouldn’t come back in time, and there would be enemies coming from two different exits any second.  
He turned to Hunk who was looking at his belly with a puzzled expression. Lance ran to him in time to stop him from falling to the floor too harshly.

“I can’t… get us out of here.” The protector, of course. And in that moment all of Hunk’s mistakes were nothing, and Lance had to get him out of there so one day there was the possibility that they could go back to earth and watch movies together.

He took hold of Hunk as best as he could, and dragged him to the lion.

_You better open now._

But the lion remained the same.  
It couldn’t end like that, not after all, not in such a dumb mission, something that was supposed to be piece of cake.  
His vision became blurry but there was no time to whip off the tears. He was carrying his best friend who was bleeding out.

_Get your shit together, Lance. You better open up right now, Yellow._

He somehow had managed to make it to the lion’s mouth. It opened. He let out a relieved sigh. The others were asking on the comms what was happening, but he had become deaf, they would find out later.  
He somehow got the strength to put Hunk inside. Some said things like that happened because of adrenaline or sheer force of will. He didn’t care which.  
The lion’s mouth slammed shut when the sentries started shooting outside. He could fell the hits on the lion’s walls. They needed to leave. But how.

_To protect._

The message was abstract but very clear. The Yellow Lion was for the protectors, and so, it would aid anyone who was trying to protect, especially if the one in need of protection was her paladin.  
Even in that situation he couldn’t help but think, _Four down, one left_.

And so, he made it to the castle, where the paladins were not ready for what they got. Kuron and Allura took Hunk to the pods followed by Coran. He knew he would be okay, nothing the pods couldn’t heal.

Lance stayed there next to Yellow as his heart stopped trying to escape his chests. Why did things like that kept happening? Couldn’t they safely save the universe like in movies?  
Keith was frowning at him, and then approached. Lance tensed, he hadn’t forgotten. It had been a week of avoiding people because he didn’t want to talk to them, and a week of avoiding the red paladin like he had the plague.

“Lance, I-“  
Lance spun around and got out of the room without saying a word.

  
The next day, Hunk was out of the pod, alive, and happily making breakfast. After lunch, Lance, as always, headed to his room after training. Not long after entering, someone started knocking on the door.  
“Lance, I know you’re in there, buddy.” More knocking. “Please, we… need to talk.”  
Lance just couldn’t get himself to open the door.  
“ Okay, I get it. I just wanted to thank you, you know, for saving me. If you ever need someone you know I’m always ther-“ Hunk’s breath hitched, and he seemed to think it better. “I’ll try to help.”

 

Pidge called them to the control room to show them the shiny, purple dot that showed Lotor’s location. They wasted no time in setting course.

But when they arrived to the point marked on the map, they didn’t find what they expected.  
There were hundreds of galra fighters surrounding Lotor’s ship. Lance recognised the four fighters that belonged to the prince. Acxa was doing a good job blasting the enemies too, but there were just too many. What he couldn’t understand was why they weren’t using the comet ship.  
Lance couldn’t believe the team was considering attacking Lotor right then. Call it honour or anything else, but it was like stabbing someone defenceless. Well, Lotor and the girls weren’t even close to defencelessness, but there weren’t in a position to fight back at the moment.  
He ran out of the room and to the Red Lion. It would be the one who would be better at dodging the multiple shoots of the fighters. It was weird that he could actually choose from a selection of lions.  
Lance also knew that after that, Keith would need no prove to accuse him as a traitor, but he thought it was worth it. He couldn’t just stand there and wait until one of the three fighters was finally blown into pieces, and guess which of them had died.  
He made it to the lion, ignoring whoever had been calling for him. He had little time until they caught up and tried to stop him. Keith wouldn’t take much longer to figure out what he was planning, if he hadn’t already.  
Time was essential.

He put his helmet on, went into Red, and sitting on the pilot seat, abandoned the castle. He shut the comms down. All of them. So there were no distractions.  
Red went into battle like a literal machine of destruction. If the generals were surprised, they didn’t let it affect their fighting.  
Soon, there were considerably less enemies, and the three fighters and Lance were hovering back to back around Lotor’s ship as they took down the enemies.  
It wasn’t long until the battle was over. Team Voltron hadn’t interfered. Lance wondered if the castle was a chaos of doubt, accusations, and betrayal at that moment. It probably was. But he had to go back, the reasons why he had been staying hadn’t changed. So he would have to tell them the truth and deal with the consequences. At least, he had a point in favour considering he was the only one currently able of piloting Black, and he also had the advantage of being able to pilot four of the lions.  
The screen showed that someone was trying to communicate with him from outside the team’s network. He accepted the connection, Acxa’s face appeared.

  
“Do you want us to wait for you?” She knew there was no time for greetings or niceties.

  
“No. But tell Lotor this is payment for his gift.”

  
Acxa blinked, wide-eyed, and then smiled softly. “Alright. Thank you for your help.”

  
Lance smiled too. “Tell everyone I said hi.”

  
“Of course.” And the connection went out.

 

His mind wandered again to the fact that he had to go back to the castle. he watched as the fighters returned to the ship and it zoomed away. Then, the Red Lion turned around and headed to the white ship. It hadn’t moved at all, and it looked out of place next to the wreckage of pieces that the battle had left.

He didn’t dare turn on the comms. Not even when he was back in the castle. He took off his helm as he got out of Red. He would face what came without hiding. Surprisingly, the room was empty. So, he headed to the control room feeling increasingly nervous. The hallways had never seemed so long.  
When he finally made it, he found all the team standing n the opposite side of the room in complete silence. But the expressions on their faces told him more than anything.  
Allura’s eyes were piercing ice, Coran’s were filled with contained anger, Pidge had narrowed her eyes as if searching for something on him, Hunk looked hurt, Kuron was frowning at him in confusion, and Keith was glaring.

“Why did you return”, the princess’ voice, just as her eyes, was made of steel. He knew what she saw, a traitor. Someone that she had trusted who had betrayed her by joining the people that killed her race. Someone who had lied to their faces for who knew how long.

He wanted to answer, but it felt as if someone was gripping his throat, and as if a weight was being pushed on his chest.  
“Why.” Allura’s voice was still cold and unforgiving, but it had an edge to it. It was worse.

 

“I’m sorry”, he shocked out.

  
“‘Sorry’?” Coran’s words felt like a knife, there was no ice, just anger, and hurt.

 

Pidge’s was the only expression that didn’t seem to be one of hate or hurt. She knew there had to be something else to it. But at that moment, Lance didn’t notice it.

 

Keith came forward. “I thought that maybe it wasn’t what it seemed. That maybe something had happened to you. But the only thing that happened was that you decided to join _them_. How long? How long have you been lying to our faces? Laughing behind our backs?” Keith was shaking. “Was it before they captured you? Did you have fun telling them about the stupid paladins that thought you were their friend? Were those days we were looking for you just some vacations?”

 _No! It wasn’t like that_.  
But he couldn’t say it. Lance could only stare at Keith’s eyes. “Is that why they were always ahead of us?” The red paladin’s words were the only sound in the dead silent room. “But you’re not gonna answer, are you? You’re just gonna pretend you’re mute. Was that also planned?”  
Lance was shacking too. How could Keith think he had wanted any of it, much less planned it? He just wanted him to shut up so he could say something. Tell them what had happened. He wanted Keith to take his eyes off him so he could get his voice back.  
The words that followed were fueled by anger, and hurt. “Was this all a fucking game for you? Did you have fun watching Shiro disappear, and watching us searching for him the whole time? That’s why you knew Kuron was a clone, isn’t it? Are the Holts-“

_Slap._

The sound almost echoed. Everyone held their breath. Keith turned to look back at him, shocked. But what did he expect? Everyone has limits, even Lance.  
The stinging on his hand felt good. What he said next he had been wanting to say for ages.

 

“Fuck you, Keith.” He looked at every single one of them in the eyes. “Fuck all of you.”  
And like that, he was gone.  
out of the room, down the halls, and to the unused hangar with white fighters. He took one and left. No one tried to stop him, he didn’t give it much thought.  
When Lance considered he was far away enough, he stopped. And looking around, realised he was alone.  
In space.  
Lost.

And he closed his eyes, and opened them again as someone opened the door to his fighter. That someone was pink, and stood in the doorway.  
He blinked the sleep away and wondered why Ezor was there, and where ‘there’ was.

“Hi,” he said, tiredly.

  
“We knew this would happen,” she explained. “Narti knew how to find you but wouldn’t tell us where you were before this.”

  
“Ok.”

 

She sighed. “Let’s go to your room.” Lance didn’t know very well how he got to his room and to his bed afterwards. The blue dot was still in the door. And then, his eyes closed again.

 

* * *

   
No one came looking for him next morning.  
Lance woke up sore because of sleeping with the armour on. He tried not to think much about what had happened while he applied the skin care products and took a shower.  
It was a shame he hadn’t thought of bringing his clothes with him when he left.

The door was unlocked and we went to the kitchen. It seemed it was breakfast because everyone, even Lotor, was at the dinning table. They stopped talking when they saw him and waited until he had grabbed some jelly and sat down in the table to start again.

 

“‘Morning, Lancey.” Ezor said it smiling, but it was easy to tell that she was worried.

  
“‘Morning, guys,” he replied. Lotor raised his eyebrows and Zethrid shocked on her food. He smiled. “Yeah, got it back.”

  
“It certainly suits you better than the tablet’s,” Acxa said.

  
He shrugged. “I guess.”

  
“So,” started Zethrid, “are you staying this time?”  
Lance felt the weight of the question.

  
“I think so.”

  
“You would have to truly join us if that is the case, fight with us.” Lotor, who usually remained silent during eating times, spoke.

 

“Yeah, I know.”

  
“In exchange of?”

  
Lance frowned. Was Lotor offering to give him something? He was already letting him stay. Lance thought about Earth, but had to admit that he couldn’t go back in the middle of an intergalactic war that would also affect his home planet. So he decided for something much more simple.

  
“Well, there’s something.”

  
“And that is?”

  
“Your shampoo. Dude, whatever stuff you use does an amazing job.”

  
Lotor blinked, shocked. And then he laughed. “Gods, it’s been ages since someone has talked to me in that way, it’s… refreshing. And, of course. You may go get it at my bedroom later.”

 

* * *

   
They had tried to follow Lance. But the lions just wouldn’t open up.  
As soon as Keith had realised what was going on, he ran to Red. But she stayed inactive as if he wasn’t there. The others arrived not much later. But neither Yellow, Black, or Blue would activate. Green had come to life when Pidge had entered. But then, Black had stood up, roared, and shut down again. Green then proceeded to act the same way as the others.  
And still, they had made no advance.

But of course, they had tried to look for his fighter and locate his armour. Something was blocking the signal and also the fighter’s.  
The team had quickly changed from hate to regret as they hadn’t once heard Lance snap like that, or the hurt in his face as he did so. If he had betrayed them, there had been more to it.

That night during dinner, it was Kuron who broke the silence, asking, “Why would he do that?”  
They all knew what he was referring to, but none answered, because they didn’t know, and they hadn’t bothered to find out, just as they had done many times already.

It was Pidge who spoke. “We never gave him a reason not to.”

 

* * *

   
Lance spent the morning in the training area sparring lightly with Ezor, as she excitedly told her how she and Acxa had come back together, and about some of the missions that they had done. Apparently, Lotor’s mother was against him. Lance couldn’t imagine what kind of female would want to be with Zarkon.

At lunch, only Narti and Kova were there. Narti greeted him by nodding and Kova seemed glad to have him there. Lance liked petting cats.

  
On the afternoon, he went to Lotor’s room. He knocked three times and the door opened. It was the first time he saw the prince without his armour. Instead, he was wearing a black t-shirt, and pyjama pants that looked like they were made of silk, his feet were bare, and his hair was a little messier than usual. It was a weird sight, seeing the usually regal prince as someone almost normal, chilling on his room in pyjamas.  
He must have been staring because Lotor said, “Well, come in.”

Inside, there were documents all over a big desk and even in the bed. Lotor picked them up and put them int the desk.  
He wet to the bathroom, it was clearly bigger than Lance’s. Products were all over shelfs. The prince really did take care of himself.  
Lotor picked two green containers and gave them to Lance. “This is it.”

  
“Thanks.”  
He glanced in the mirror at how dry his hair looked compared to Lotor’s. He had stopped really caring for it weeks before.  
Without thinking he raised an arm to touch a lock and then drew it away quickly. Lotor tensed.  
“Uh, sorry.”

  
“Why did you do that?” But it wasn’t a reprimand, just a question.

  
“I thought it would look good on a braid.”

  
Lotor seemed to be thinking about it. “A braid? Do you know how to make one?”

  
“Yes”, Lance answered proudly.

Lotor grabbed something small from a shelf, went to the bed, and sat down on the lower part with his back to Lance.  
“Then, do it.” He handed Lance the thing, it was an elastic.  
Lance sat down smiling and began to work.

 

* * *

  
At dinner, the girls stared at Lotor and Lance as they entered. The prince’s hair was combed into a neat braid.  
Ezor whispered to him. “Did you do that?” He nodded. “Great.”  
The other s seemed amused as well.

  
That night, he had an idea and went the prince’s room the next morning. The shampoo was already doing wonders on his hair.  
Lotor opened, surprised to see him there. Lance told him he had thought about another hairstyle but that it would take some time. Lotor was curious and accepted, but only if Lance let him try it on him as well. So they basically spent the morning braiding each other’s hair, and left the girls wondering where they were.  
It took quite some time because the hairstyle consisted on many small braids and Lotor had lots of hair. The prince wasn’t bad at braiding either. So by lunch, both of them arrived to the table with matching hairstyles. Ezor’s and Zethrid’s eyes were gleaming and Acxa just kept shaking her head while smiling.  
That afternoon, Lance sparred with Acxa, Zethrid joined, but Lance still lasted way too little time with her in the arena, thought him and Acxa managed to beat her together.

But the next morning came the fun part. Lance went to Lotor’s room and told him to take the braids off. He told the prince to do it with closed eyes, and when they both were done, they stood in front of the mirror, and saw. Both’s hair was really puffy. They laughed. A lot. And then the girls did as well when they went to breakfast, seeming to forget that Lotor was a prince. Narti’s tail waved rom side to side in amusement.  
That afternoon he trained with the hooded girl, which was a really good dodging practice.

 

* * *

 

So it became normal for Lotor to appear with different hairstyles every morning, and sometimes Lance matched them.  
One day, Lotor decided to change the routine and temporarily died Lance’s hair white. Ezor thought he looked good.

They even went on a mission to take some small base that supported Lotor’s mother. Lance went along. Working with them as a team felt natural, taking the base was piece of cake.  
They had all-day-long mandatory training every four days. It was tiring but gratifying.  
There was no sign of Voltron.

For once, things seemed like they were going to be okay.

 

_Next Chapter Preview:_

_"Katie?"_

_"Matt?"_

_"Shiro?"_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Until next Sunday.


	6. He's Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The real Shiro is back. He just can't understand why everyone pales when he asks where Lance is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm no good at keeping update schedules. Guys, I'm so sorry.

Team Voltron had almost lost hope on finding Lance or getting the lions to open, when, in the middle of the night, five synchronised roars woke up everyone in the castle. everyone rushed, still in night clothes, to their corresponding lions, and saw that they were once again functioning. After days of managing with fighters and escaping from every galra ship they encountered, they would be able to fight back once again.  
But there had to be a reason to why the lions had decided to allow the paladins to pilot them once again, they weren’t able to figure out what it was that night, and went back to sleep. Black still wouldn’t let Keith in.

The next day, they didn’t waste any time to go look for information in yet another galra base. They couldn’t really do anything significant without Voltron whole, at least not without risking everything. Information about Shiro’s or Lance’s whereabouts both would have been good, but they found something else, something better.

At first it was just hallways. Purple, dark, metal hallways. The base was big ,and the planet in which it was located was huge. It hadn’t been difficult to find a place to hide the lions before infiltrating it. There were dozens of rooms filled with supplies, and they would have decided to search if there was something good on them if it hadn’t been for Pidge reminding them that that was how they always got hurt. So they stayed together, and went inside the control room. For some reason there were no alarms and the sentries were less than they had expected.  
Pidge stood away from the controls and shook her head. There wasn’t anything useful. They remained focussed and made their way back, the lack of alarms and guards was suspicious and they weren’t risking it, nothing in that ship was worth losing yet another one of their members.

They took a corner, and stopped on their tracks. Gasps, wide eyes, shocked expressions.

“Katie?”

“Matt?”

“Shiro?”

“Is-Is that Kaltenecker?” Hunk seemed to find a way to get out of the shock by mentioning the cow standing next to Matt.

“Who?” the older Holt asked.

“The cow.”

“Oh, yes. Shiro calls her that.”

Allura and Keith had remained speechless. “Shiro…?” Maybe it was because he had already been given his brother back once only for it to be a lie, but Keith looked like he couldn’t believe his eyes.

Shiro smiled. “Hey.”  
The red paladin blinked and allowed himself an smile as well.

“We have to go,” Allura was making an effort to remain focussed, “More enemies may arrive at any moment.”

“We turned the alarms off, but you’re probably right, princess Allura, I think?”  
“And you must be Pidge’s brother, Matt.”

“Matt can go with me, and Shiro with Keith,” said Pidge. Everyone agreed.  
Shiro glanced at the team and frowned. They got to the lions without any inconvenience. Shiro saw Allura get into the Blue Lion. Where was Lance?

 

* * *

   
Lance finally got around to asking them why they couldn’t use the comet ship. He remembered about it during dinner, the girls looked uncomfortable and Lotor clenched his fists.  
Acxa was the one who spoke, “It drains us. After we attacked you, we spent days resting. We decided to only use it during emergencies.”  
Lotor sighed. “It probably lacks the altean healing magic the Lions of Voltron have, so it has to get energy from somewhere. The material may be indestructible and capable of traveling dimensions, but apparently it doesn't like wasting it's own energy.”  
Ezor shivered. “There’s just something wrong with it, I could feel it.”

In another time, it would have meant good news for him, that they couldn’t use the comet ship meant Voltron had the advantage. But things had changed, and it only meant that Lotor didn’t have a powerful weapon to fight his mother.  
Lance didn’t really understand why the prince’s mother would go against him, but he never asked, it just didn’t seem appropriate to do so. And with what he had seen from the empire, if Lotor’s mother was some kind of empress Voltron had never heard about, or just someone Zarkon had had a son with, it was likely she wasn’t good. Maybe she wanted to keep the power to herself.

Or maybe Zarkon was alive.

Lance didn’t want to think about it, the possibility that Shiro had gone for nothing, that in the end, it hadn’t mattered. And it scared him because it meant that both Voltron and the generals were in danger.

  
Trying to distract himself from worrying about things he couldn’t fix, Lance spent hours training, with the others and alone, and improved, especially in sword combat, having someone to finally teach him the technique he had been lacking.  
He also talked to girls, a lot. Ezor loved to hear him talk about Earth, and she sometimes mentioned planets that were similar to the places he described. She had visited a planet with an ocean, Segara, and promised she would convince Lotor to stop there if they had time. Lance doubted they would, not in a very long time, but he was grateful for the intention.

He found himself having very long discussions with Zethrid about equality in the empire and on Earth. It seemed that gender and race equality were in the same situation among humans and galrans, but she couldn’t believe that sexuality and gender identity had that problem on Lance’s home planet.  
“More than half of the species here have more than one gender or none at all! That doesn’t make any sense!”  
Sometimes, Acxa would join them and talk about how she thought it was unfair that the empire didn’t have any female generals and barely any soldiers. Back in her home planet, there were many talented girls who would have been an excellent addition to the empire, but that were dammed to stay as accessories to husbands they hadn’t even chosen.  
The only way for a girl to get into a decent rank was to join the druids with their dark, unnatural magic.  
Narti would sit there silently as Kova changed from her lap to Lance’s or Zethrid’s.

 

The day Shiro and the paladins stumbled upon each other, Lotor, wearing a elaborate hair bun, told the team that they would go to a mission to get supplies and weapons from a big enemy base.

 

* * *

 

They were standing in the control room, Allura was preparing a wormhole jump with Coran while the paladins and the tow newcomers remained quiet, all with questions, but no one daring to ask.  
Pidge, who was standing next to her brother, asked him, “Since when do you look so…” she looked as if she couldn’t find the correct word. Hunk had the same question, Matt looked very different from the nerdy guy in the photo Pidge carried around.  
Shiro falsely coughed as he answered “hot” and coughed again.  
Pidge looked at him in horror, and then two Matt, then she just grunted. “So you had to be kidnapped by aliens and thrown into an intergalactic war to finally tell him you like him?” Matt glared at his sister. Pidge turned to Shiro. “Or did _you_ tell him. Because after all his rambling back in the Garrison about you- mmmph.” Matt had put a hand on her mouth and dragged her away, next to Hunk, so she wouldn’t keep spilling confidential information to Shiro.

The wormhole opened, Keith asked, “So, where were you?”  
Shiro opened his mouth to answer, but Matt, who had come back to stand next to him, replied first, “If Shiro answers, he’s gonna spend a long time telling unnecessary details. So, the summary is that I was rescued by a gang that likes to mess with the Galra, and they let me stay with them as long as I helped get provisions now and then, and I discovered the galra had Shiro ,so I went with the gang to rescue him. He stayed with us for a bit, and then we started to search for you guys ,but we didn’t find much, just that you and Zarkon’s son are competing about who takes down the empire first or something, and then we went to the base for supplies and accidentally found you. And, for some reason the gang had a cow that Shiro calls Kaltenecker, but I doubt it’s the same one, and it just followed us.” Matt took a deep breath. “Your turn.”

Everyone blinked, trying to take all the information in, Shiro sighed and shook his head, smiling.  
“You were part of a gang,” stated Pidge.  
“Yeah.”  
“A gang.”  
“Yes.”  
Pidge shook her head.  
“Okay. Pidge, I can’t believe your brother just said we are competing with Lotor,” Hunk said, finding it amusing.  
Matt glanced from the yellow to the green paladin as Pidge answered, “You get used to it.”  
Matt cleared his throat. “Okay, so like, what the fuck is a ‘Pidge’.”  
Pidge face palmed even thought she was smiling. “Oh my God. It’s a nickname.”  
“Why.”  
Pidge’s eyes gleamed and she smirked. “So you think your gang story is cool? I infiltrated the Garrison searching for you and dad but they found out, so I joined the academy as, basically, Mulan. So my false name was Pidge.”  
Matt just raised an eyebrow. “What kind of name is Pidge anyways.”  
“Hey!”

They were interrupted as Allura cleared her throat, apparently, the wormhole jump had taken place without any of them noticing.  
“You have already told us your story, but I must ask something else,” The princess said, “Shiro, were you experimented on?”  
Shiro gulped, “Yes.”  
Allura nodded. Matt was frowning, “Why-“ The door suddenly opened and Kuron went in, the clone instantly saw Shiro and looked at him in horror. Shiro stared back with a similar expression.  
Matt took a deep breath. “Care to explain?”

To the surprise of the paladins, it was Keith who spoke. “He’s a clone, Kuron, but he didn’t know what he was. We-“ he looked away from Shiro, “We thought he was you for a while.”

Shiro was staring at Kuron. “I saw you, you were escaping.”  
The clone managed to nod, looking like he wanted to disappear. Shiro shook his head and looked back at the team.

“So, where’s Lance?”

Suddenly, the room was completely silent. The colour drained from all the faces in the room except Matt and Shiro. The former black paladin had never seen the princess so nervous. And he feared the worst, he feared he would be told they had lost the blue paladin. But no one spoke or dared to move a muscle, Matt glanced around in curiosity wondering why Katie had been paralysed.

“He’s gone,” Hunk whispered at last, and looked away, not being able to face Shiro.

Maybe if he had been there Lance wouldn’t have died, maybe if he hadn’t been captured…  
“How did he… die.”

Keith answered, “He- he’s not dead. He just… went away.”

Had Lance gone back to Earth? There was a time when it would have been something likely, but after all that had happened, Shiro doubted the blue paladin would just escape and leave everything behind, he knew Lance wasn’t that kind of person.  
But he still asked, “To Earth?”

“No, he just… he’s with Lotor now,” Pidge finally said it.

It took Shiro some seconds to understand the words, it took Matt less.  
“The blue paladin ran away with Zarkon’s son?!”

Pidge still looked shaken but was no longer paralysed. “You make it sound like they are lovers.”  
“Are they?!”  
“No. I mean, I don’t think so. We… We don’t really know why he went away.”  
“That actually makes sense,” Keith whispered more to himself, but everyone heard.

Shiro was still trying to understand the facts. He knew there had to be a different reason, he had gotten to know each member of the team well enough to know that, even thought Lance was very flirty, he knew the blue paladin would never betray the team for something love related. He knew that Lance was loyal. And if the team said he had ran away, it meant that they were sure he hadn’t been being controlled by the enemy, and he trusted their judgement in that. So the only explanation that he could think of at that moment was that the problem he had seen happening since the beginning, and that he hadn’t done anything to stop, had finally gotten out of control. He should have done something about it when he had seen it happening, but he knew that if it was the reason, there was no use blaming himself, when he knew it hadn’t been entirely his fault. He couldn’t believe it had gotten to a point in which Lance had felt he would be better off with the enemy than with his own team. He had seen that ,even thought Lance brushed aside the comments and jokes the others made about him, they had hurt him. Shiro knew he should have done something, and maybe it wasn’t too late. But he needed to know what had happened.

It all just came out as, “What did you do.” And there was no warm on it because he wasn’t happy with the team. He could see it in their faces then, the guilt.

“We fucked up,” it was Pidge, the others didn’t dare face Shiro. She was looking to the floor, ashamed. “He lost his voice saving me on a mission. We… ignored him. And, left him alone and didn’t care. And then he was captured by Lotor, but came back by himself, but we didn’t even _ask_ how he had done it. And some days ago, we found Lotor and he was being attacked; Lance helped him and we didn’t listen to what he had to said when he came back. And he just snapped and ran away. We can’t find him.” Pidge said it all at once, as if saying it slowly was more difficult.

There was silence, Allura and Coran still hadn’t moved and then, “You fucking what.”  
He didn’t yell it, just said it. But it wouldn’t have made any difference, because what felt like a blow was that Shiro _never_ swore. Everyone looked chocked, even Matt, especially Matt.  
They all looked to the floor as grounded children. “Search for a big base. We’re going to get information about Lotor. I’m going to fix this.”  
Shiro left to visit Black, she opened for him. She told him the parts of the story that had been left out. He had never felt that much disappointment.

In the control room, Coran and Allura hurried to do what Shiro had ordered, Hunk joined them. Keith went to his room where he stayed the rest of the day.

Before joining the alteans and the yellow paladin, Pidge went to her brother and whispered, “And dad?”  
Matt’s expression changed. “He’s a traitor.” He was clenching his fits. “He spit out everything to them to save himself.” Matt walked to the door. “I’ll be staying in the same room as Shiro.” And he left the room.  
Kuron hurried to the black paladin’s room to get his things and move out.

 

* * *

 

In the morning, someone knocked on Lance’s door. It was Lotor, Lance let him in. He was used to Ezor visiting early, but not to anyone else, much less Lotor.  
“I have something to give you before the mission,” the prince said, moving to an empty piece of wall next to the desk. He pressed his hand to it, and suddenly, the wall rose into the ceiling, revealing a dark armour just as the ones the girls had, but shaped a little differently, and broader on the middle. The shoulders were a little less prominent as well.

Lance stared at it for some seconds before it hit him. “Wait, you mean it’s for me?”

“Yes. It is better for hiding at the bases than the paladin armour. I am not going to force you to wear it in no way but-“

“No. I’ll wear it, it’s okay.” Lance was still staring at the armour.

Lotor smirked, pleased with himself. “We will be waiting for you at the hangar.” And he left the room.  
Lance finally reached and grabbed the armour. He proceeded to put it on, which was not as difficult he had feared it would be. He grabbed the helmet as he went out of the room.

Each of them took a fighter, and it was Acxa who stayed in the ship.

 

* * *

  
Both teams landed on the same planet, but on opposite sides. Voltron remained together as they infiltrated the base, and Lotor’s split up. Lance was in charge of getting blasters, which were near one of the three control rooms the base had.  
He found it easily and grabbed a medium sized metal box that, for some miracle of alien technology, was a lot less heavy that it ought to be.  
He was about to turn a corner to head to the hallway that lead to the exit, when he heard steps of someone coming. But they weren’t the light, echoing steps of the sentries, it was something alive, more than one, and they were coming fast.  
He put the box on the ground as quietly as he could and activated his bayard. Lance hid behind the corner and waited, aiming to where the estrangers would come from. He counted. One. Two. three. Four. A blur and he shoot. They blocked, and he saw who they were.  
He had shoot at Keith, and just then, he saw Pidge and Allura round the corner, but the had heard more steps, more than the four paladins that remained so what…?  
He didn’t have time to think further about it, Allura lunged. Lance remembered he hadn’t taken his helm off, for them, he was just a stranger with Lotor’s uniform, they maybe even thought he _was_ Lotor.  
He had to escape somehow, but could he run fast enough so a blast from Hunk wouldn’t reach him? He dodged Allura as he thought, practice with Narti had really been useful. He deactivated his bayard, it was no use in close range combat, but he didn’t take his sword out.  
So, he couldn’t hurt them, but he couldn’t let them hurt him. He was slowly backing away, it was good the hallway was very long and he wouldn’t meet and end soon. If he managed to get to another corner, he could run for it and Hunk wouldn’t be able to shoot him, but he had to do it slowly so they wouldn’t notice. The thing was that Lance kept backing away and dodging and he still didn’t see any new hallways by the corner of his eyes, he couldn’t afford turning around.

New plan. The blue paladin dodged another swing from Allura’s staf and dashed at Keith, taking his sword out. The blades clashed, he held it for a second before breaking contact, going below Keith’s arm and to the other side of him to avoid being hit by the princess. His bayard was active once again, and he shoot close enough to Pidge and Hunk to force them to put up the shields. He kept running and took the corner that had come from, and stopped death on his tracks.

Behind the darkened helmet, his mouth fell open.  
_Shiro?_

The man was just standing there, frowning at him, while someone that looked like a taller copy of Pidge without glasses pointed his staff at Lance.  
He sensed movement behind and foolishly turned around. Matt’s staff hit his middle with surprising force and sent him to the ground. There were two staffs, a sword, and a gun pointing at him. Well, he had lasted against the whole team more than he had expected.

“Take off the helmet,” Shiro ordered. For the first time, he noticed the comms inside of it had gone crazy with questions of where he was. “I’m okay, don’t come. I can manage it,” Lance whispered.  
He started slowly moving his hands toward his head when, “Wait, isn’t that Lance’s bayard?” Of course it had to be Pidge. For a second, everyone turned to look at her, and Lance made use of it. He rolled to the side, swept Pidge’s brother off his feet with a kick, and escaped the circle that had formed around him through the hole the older Holt had left.

He ran some meters before he turned around.  
“Lance?” Shiro asked. The blue paladin took his helmet off, Shiro’s expression was one of worry.  
“I won’t come back,” he stated. He had decided it, he was better off away from Voltron, he had given them plenty of opportunities.  
“I’m sorry I wan’t there.”

No. No, he wasn’t going to fall for it. No.

He shook his head, more to assure himself.  
“I give them plenty of opportunities and was let down every single time. I’m better off like this.” He had thought it, but he had never said it out loud. It felt good.

Shiro started again. “Wait, Lance-“  
“No. I’m not going back.” And he put his helm on, turned around, and ran.

“Guys, I couldn’t get the blasters, Voltron’s here. Are you back at the fighters yet?”

Lotor answered, “Doesn’t matter. Yes, we don’t want to fight them right now.”

 

Back in the fighters and heading towards the ship, Ezor asked, “Lance, you okay?”  
“Yeah,” he replied, and it actually wasn’t a lie.

 

* * *

  
In his bedroom, out of the armour, and after a shower, it finally really got to him the fact that Shiro was back.  
And everything that had happened during the mission seemed suddenly really surreal.  
For starters, he was really glad that the man was okay and that Pidge had gotten her brother back, but on the other side, he was aching for answers.  
Where had Shiro been? How had the team finally found him? And Matt? How had Shiro reacted to whatever the team had told him about Lance’s absence? (His first thought was that they had said he was a traitor, but why would Shiro ask a traitor to come back?) And, _what_ had they told Shiro? He had to tell himself to stop, there was no use if he couldn’t answer his doubts.

And a little annoying part of him kept telling him, _what if you had come back with them?_

 

* * *

 

  
Shiro was angry again, that collected anger of his. Everyone was petrified, Matt was chilling on one of the seats, eating some goop (it was better than what he ate with the rebels when there were low supplies) while watching as if it was a particularly interesting movie.

“I can’t believe Lance’s first reaction to seeing you was to escape. How could he be so unhappy without you noticing?” It would have been easier for the paladins if he had yelled.

“Because we were conceited assholes.” Pidge seemed to be the only one willing to reply. Not how the others would have worded it, but still true.

“Until we fix this,” Shiro said, “all of you are going to do fifty lines from one side to the other of the training room, one hundred crunches, and at least one hour of training sequence _everyday_. Understood?”  
Everyone nodded, and a nervous “yes, sir” from Hunk.

Shiro sat next to Matt, as the paladins and Coran escaped to the training room.  
Matt laughed. “I can’t believe you are punishing them with exercise. What are you, their dad from the army?”

Shiro glared at him.

“But I mean, like , seriously.”

The black paladin snatched his bowl of goop out of his hands, stood up, and walked out of the room.  
Matt jumped up from the seat and followed. “Hey! That’s my food!”

 

* * *

 

There was an idea that suddenly came to Lance during training. And he told it to Lotor. Because there was no reason they couldn’t join forces if they were trying to beat essentially the same thing, right? And then they could make a council or something and everyone would be happy. And it solved all of Lance’s problems, so that was a plus.  
And Lotor _considered_ it, and then said _yes_. And Lance just couldn’t believe it because there was no freaking way it was that easy, because nothing was easy, much less convincing someone of allying with an enemy during a intergalactic war. But apparently it was. And suddenly, the girls were there in the control room too, discussing the idea, and Lance was going to be sent to the castle to ‘join’ Voltron again so he could convince them. And everything was happening so fast, and he had to be dreaming.

 

* * *

  
  
Keith went to Shiro’s room, luckily Matt wasn’t there because it would have been awkward. Shiro opened and didn’t look surprised to see him there.  
He let Keith in without saying a word.  
“It was my fault,” the red paladin started, “I said something, I crossed the line, so he left. I should be doing more than the others to make it up.”  
Shiro understood what he meant. He knew his brother well enough to know that he wouldn’t be able to convince him that that was not the way to make up for it, and that he needed to do something meanwhile. “Two hundred crunches for you then. But Keith, what you really need to do is, you know, tell him you are sorry when he’s back.”  
Keith nodded and left. He didn’t tell Shiro that he thought it was more of a ‘if’ than a ‘when’.

 

* * *

 

_Next chapter preview_

_He looked down, there was something sticking through his chest, it was yanked from behind. He fell on his knees. The man didn't say anything, but he heard his steps leaving._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe the amount of kudos and comments this story is getting! Thank you, you're all so nice!
> 
> Thanks to Winter_Suffocation and Callin for the ideas they gave me.
> 
> I have some stuff to do this week, so I'm not sure I'll have time to write. I'll try to update as soon as I can, but just in case, next update will be on two weeks.


	7. Purple

Sooner than he expected, Lance found himself in the white fighter, returning to the castle. The generals had wished him good luck in his ‘diplomatic mission’, and Lotor had connected his paladin helmet to their comms so he would be able to communicate with them and vice versa. It was kind of scary how fast it was happening, how what he thought a dumb idea had become a thing.

The castle's alarms or defences didn’t activate as the fighter was a ship it recognised as its own. It was the middle of the ‘night’ and he knew everyone would be sleeping so he would be able to get into the castle. He left the fighter and walked around, feeling at home and at that same time like he didn’t belong. He walked around and didn’t find anyone, he stayed clear of the lions in case they activated if they saw him and woke someone up. Lance knew the lions were aware he was there, but he still wasn’t going to risk it.  
The plan was to let them find him in the middle of the castle, so they would notice how low their defences where, and offer an alliance.  
He went to his room, which looked inhabited, and lied on the bed. There was no reason to stay up as there were hours until the paladins woke up. He fell asleep— and woke up to Shiro ordering everyone to wake up over the comms.  
Lance guessed it was some kind of training, but he had grown used to a nice environment in which he wasn’t woken up by someone yelling, and did not appreciate it.  
He knew they would be having breakfast, so he headed to the mess hall. He walked in as if there was nothing strange with that. He sat down in front of the paladins, in a spot that had no food, and looked around. Allura and Coran weren’t there, the paladins and Kuron were sitting around the table, looking sleepy, and like they hadn’t quite gotten up yet. They didn’t see to notice anything weird in his presence, until Kuron looked up from his food and chocked on it. That’s when everyone blinked and jaws dropped.

“Lance?!”  
“What? How…?”  
“How did you…?”  
“Lance…”

Kuron had managed to get air into his lungs again. Matt walked into the room, yawning, and sat down to eat next to Lance. He noticed him.  
“Oh, you’re back. Good.” and kept eating as everyone mentally made theories on how the blue paladin had managed to sneak up on them.  
Lance took a plate that he guessed belonged to the missing team members, and started eating as well. “You should check your defences,” he said as casually as he could. The team seemed to buy it.

“So why are you back?” Pidge asked, and hurried to add, “Don’t get me wrong, it’s great. But like, you didn’t seem very willing to come back last time.”  
He forced himself to remain seemingly detached. “Plans changed. I don’t want to be here, but I have to. It’s a mission.” If he had wanted to, it wouldn’t have been difficult to pretend he was having breakfast as part of Voltron, like the old times.

Shiro frowned at him. “A mission?” He didn’t see Lance as a traitor, but he couldn’t forget that the blue paladin was working for one of his enemies.

Lance took another spoonful, letting the tension build. He could feel their stares on him, waiting for an answer. He swallowed at last. “An alliance.”  
He saw Pidge’s eyes widen, and Shiro’s chocked face. Matt looked interested but not very impressed.  
“We should discuss this with the princess,” said the black paladin at last. Lance nodded. Matt and Kuron kept eating. They all finished their breakfast in an uncomfortable silence. Lance did his best to try to hide that he too, was uncomfortable.  
Finally, Shiro stood up, and everyone followed. They awkwardly went to the control room.

The alteans turned around and it was less than one second before shock appeared on their faces.  
“Lance…” kind of greeted Allura. Coran seemed to be at a loss of words.

Lance decided to go formal. “Princess Allura.” He made a small reverence. Allura looked confused at the gesture. “I come to propose an alliance.”  
“Alliance?” the princess asked, not stopping herself on time.  
“An alliance to take down the fraction of the empire that still supports Zarkon’s ideals.” It had been his idea, but they were Lotor’s words.  
“Oh.”

The silence stretched. “Doesn’t Lotor want to take us down?” again, it was Pidge who broke it.  
“‘Wanted’,” Lance corrected. “Lotor- _Prince_ Lotor has realised joining Voltron it’s a better alternative.” He felt weird saying it, it just wasn’t him. He was one to say things like they came, not to decorate them with pretty words, formality, and fancy sentences. The team seemed to be thinking something similar to that.

Allura still looked confused, but more in a kind of ‘not knowing what to do’ way. “We will discuss it. Could you please leave us for a moment? We will call you back when we are done.”  
He nodded and left. It felt surreal.

  
Lance went to the lions, Blue specifically, and stood in front of her. She came to life, but didn’t open, none of them did. He smiled sadly. It seemed they all had their paladins. He left. He thought about trying the training room again. And that’s what he did.

 

* * *

 

Team Voltron didn’t know what to do.  
Coran locked the door as soon as Lance left and they all just stood there looking confused.

“An alliance,” Allura repeated as if she wasn’t sure of what she had heard.

“I think we should consider it,” commented Shiro.

Pidge spoke next. “Thinking about it, we could use the help, and Lotor really does seem to disagree with Zarkon, he doesn’t seem interested in enslaving planets, and there has to be a good reason why the empire wants him dead.”

“It could be beneficial,” agreed Coran. Allura still looked uncertain.

“Lance wouldn’t be tricked that easily,” it was Hunk who said it. “I know you are all thinking they somehow tricked him, but I know he is really good at reading people, and discovering intentions. In all the time that he’s been with them, he would have noticed if something was off, and he would have left. So, I trust Lance in the fact that Lotor actually wants an alliance and it’s not a trick.”

Everyone took the words in.  
At last, Allura sighed, looking resigned, like she couldn’t believe what she was doing. “Alright. I will call him back. Any objections? Good. I just hope we don’t regret this.”

 

* * *

   
It took the team less time to make a decision than he had expected, he hadn’t been away for long when the comms called his name.  
He went into the room, no one had moved from their spots. It was the princess who announced, “We accept the offer. If you wish, you may stay here for the day and we will communicate with _prince_ Lotor tomorrow to discuss it further.”

He nodded once more and left to his room. He put on a swimsuit and went to the pool. Lotor’s ship was great and all but it still didn’t have a pool, so he might as well enjoy it while he could.  
He went to the elevator. The door slit open and there was a dejavu. There was Keith, a towel, for some reason, on his head, looking surprised. Lance stepped in, none of them said anything. It was one of the most uncomfortable elevator rides Lance had ever had.  
Finally, after what seemed like forever, they arrived to the pool. in awkward silence, they left their towels and got into the water.

Lance didn’t know what to do, so they just stayed for a while on opposite sides of the pool.  
He wanted to swim some laps but it was as if something was stopping him from moving. They stayed there, looking everywhere but at each other for fifteen minutes.

Keith took a deep breath and cleared his throat, breaking the thick silence.  
He looked really uncomfortable. “I’m…. sorry. I just… I mean… I don’t know…” Lance stared at him, knowing he wasn’t finished. “I guess I’m just… scared of people leaving.” He looked as if he was doubting if he ought to keep speaking. “And I trust the team and don’t want anyone to leave, and with Shiro gone, I guess- I guess I took it the worst way possible… I shouldn’t be giving excuses… Just… I’m sorry, so sorry.”

Lance stared at him trying to decide what to do, because he hadn’t been expecting an apology. On one side, he wanted to start fixing things with the team; but on the other, he still remembered pretty clearly how Keith had hurt him, and wasn’t yet willing to forget it.

“When I’m mad hitting things makes me feel better,” Keith suddenly said. Was he suggesting Lance to go to the training room or just break some random object?  
Then, Keith climbed out of the pool and took some steps back, facing Lance. The red paladin looked unsure, but still said, “Come on, hit me.”

Lance didn’t know where that had come from, but he had to admit that the idea was appealing. So he climbed out of the pool, and raised a eyebrow to silently ask Keith if he was sure. Lance didn’t want his diplomatic mission to be a failure because he was discovered beating one of the paladins. “Go ahead.” Keith said it, even thought he looked like he was restraining himself from doing any defensive position.

So the blue paladin positioned himself, and kicked the other boy on the stomach, careful that it wasn’t hard enough to break anything. It still knocked the air out of Keith, and as he hadn’t been guarding his balance, sent him to his knees, clutching his middle.

“I… deserved it,” he gasped, he didn’t made any move to stand up.

And Lance realised that the red paladin had been right, it did felt good. And it was different to what he had done before running away, a lot more relaxing. Maybe that was how he could start fixing things.  
He walked to Keith and extended a hand. For some seconds, the boy looked at it as if it held some secret meaning, and then realising what was happening, reluctantly took it. Lance pulled him up.  
Then the blue paladin let go and stared walking to the elevator. “Wait.” He stopped and turned around. “Does that mean you’re… less mad at me now?”  
“Yeah. But you’ll have to work on it.” He turned around to leave again, and then stopped. “I’m not running away from this. And the others aren’t either,” he said, and went into the elevator, without turning around to see Keith’s expression.

 

* * *

   
Lance decided to go train a a bit before taking a shower. He headed to the training room, the door slit open, and he found Shiro sparring with a robot.  
The man took it down and saw Lance, surprise crossed his face. “Hey.”  
“Hey.”  
Shiro, in his regular clothes, looked oddly insecure. “Lance, I already said this, but I’m sorry I wan’t here.”  
Lance nodded, he had never blamed the black paladin. “I know you would have understood,” he said, looking at Shiro’s right arm.  
Shiro glanced at his arm as well, “I would.”

There were some second of silence, which weren't exactly awkward but not comfortable either.

“Do you want to train together?” Shiro asked.  
Lance actually smiled at the idea. “Yeah, sure.”

So they started level 46 with five robots. Shiro took three of them down pretty easily, Lance used his sword to slice down the two remaining. It took them barely four minutes.

Shiro looked impressed. “I’d already seen you had improved in the galra base, but you’re even better than I thought. Who taught you swordsmanship?”

“I learned myself, and Lotor helped perfect the technique,” Lance answered, and then looking away, “I had plenty of time to practice.”

Shiro looked concerned. “If you ever need to talk about it, I’ll be there.” Shiro knew sometimes people just didn’t want to talk, or that it took some time.

Lance’s stomach growled, he blushed. “Thanks. I’m gonna eat something,” he mumbled, and left, embarrassed.

 

* * *

 

Lance was in the kitchen, grabbing some goop, when a voice spoke from behind. “Hey.” He jumped a little, tensed and turned around, he hadn’t noticed Matt sitting on the kitchen’s floor, eating, when he had gone in. “They always do that. I mean, if you’re the saviours of the universe you should at least check for enemies in a room before going in.”

Lance relaxed. He walked to Matt and slit down the wall to sit next to the older Holt. He realised he knew next to nothing about him.

“So, are you best friends with Shiro or something?” He started to eat his goop as he waited for Matt to answer. The other simply raised an eyebrow. “Best friends… I guess you could think that if you didn’t know.”  
It was Lance’s turn to raise an eyebrow.  
Matt sighed. “It’s not even that difficult to guess we’re dating.”  
“Oh.”  
“Yeah.”  
“It’s great, I think it might be what Shiro needs.”  
Matt’s expression changed, he looked worried. “He still has nightmares, he wakes up screaming, or his arm randomly lightens up at night. It worries me… I don’t really know what to do.”  
Lance had suspected Shiro’s panic attacks were not everything there was to it, but even thought he wished he knew a way to help, he didn’t know how to either.  
“I mean, you probably already know this. But when he wakes up from a nightmare, hold him thigh, and remind him where he is and that you are there. If it gets too bad you could talk to Coran, he may be able to do something about it.”

“Yeah, but he doesn’t want the team to know.”

“Coran wouldn’t tell anyone if you asked him not to.”

Matt still looked unsure. “I just hope it doesn’t come to that.”

Lance didn’t say that if things could get worse, they usually did. He just nodded.  
Matt had finished his goop, he stood up. “Gotta go now. And, if you ever need, you can go talk to me hypothetically about things, ‘cause like, I don’t really now that much, so.”

Lance nodded again. Matt left. The blue paladin finished the food and left to take a shower. Nothing much happened until next day.

 

* * *

 

_A pair of eyes snapped open. A dark figure rose. Purple. Yellow eyes. An armour. White hair._

Narti woke up, agitated. Kova waved his tail in expectation. She jumped out of the bed and hurried to the hallway. But it was too late. The lights were on, Zethrid an Ezor were running to the control room, the door with the yellow dot was open, and the room empty. Alarms.

 

* * *

   
It was someone trying to communicate with the ship. Prince Lotor didn’t give it much thought at first, and headed alone, and without waking anyone up, to the cockpit. It was almost time to start the day, but he didn’t need to disturb anyone’s sleep.  
The screen was shinning, showing the call, waiting to be answered.  
He accepted it.

His eyes widened and he took a step backwards. His eyes had to be wrong, there was no way in which what the screen was showing could be true.  
Cold, yellow eyes stared at him. The same eyes that had been staring at him with indifference for all his life, the eyes that had driven him to escape central command, that had always haunted him. Eyes that were supposed to never open again.

“Son,” Zarkon said, with no affection and no feeling inflicted on the words. He remembered being a lone child in the huge ship, with a emotionless father, and a terrifying mother. “I have come to know that you have become a traitor to the empire. And I cannot allow that.”

He couldn’t be back, all he had worked for and achieved, it was all over.

His mother’s unpleasant face appeared on the screen, for once, there was no hood. There was no sorrow or remorse in her eyes as she said, “I warned you.”

The lights turned on, red. Alarms. In barely any seconds, the generals were there.

“Take the comet ship and escape. I will take another route to distract them.”

The girls’ eyes widened. “No, you can’t-“

“It’s an order.” There was no time. Not if he wanted anyone to make it out alive. The girls stared at him, in horror, but didn’t speak. “We must go now!”

They ran to the hangar, it was a chaos of red and noise. He waited for the girls to get into the comet ship before getting into a fighter.  
“Go away,” he ordered. “Do not come back.”

The hangar opened. Acxa’s face appeared on the screen. “Thank you,” she whispered.  
He could see they were surrounded. Fighters and the repaired central command. The girls could make it, the comet ship was fast, and he could provide a distraction.  
Lotor launched himself into space, going straight for the gigantic ship, while dodging attacks. He didn’t dare check if they had been able to escape.

His fighter hovered in front of central command, insignificantly small. Suddenly, his fighter went off and then turned back on.

“A noble decision,” hissed Haggar.

He turned on the communication on his armour. “Call Voltron,” the prince said.  
A beam caught the fighter an pulled it towards the ship. Behind him, his ship exploited in a million pieces, there was nowhere to go back to.  
The fighter shook and turned off once again. The beam’s light was everywhere. He was pulled into a hangar and the door closed.

  
The girls hadn’t managed to escape. They were surrounded by two ships and dozens of fighters as central command flew away.

It was hopeless.

Ezor turned on the comm of her armour and yelled, “Lance!”

 

* * *

   
He had been sleeping on his room, his paladin armour and helm lying on the floor, when there was a yell. The voice was what woke him up.

“Lance!”

By instinct, he jumped up and put on the helmet.  
“Ezor?”  
He was worried, they would only call if it was an emergency.  
“Lance!” she sounded a little relieved, but still distressed. “Zarkon’s back! They’ve got the prince, we’re surrounded! We need help!” There was some interference and a scream. “You can track my suit down, please.”

“Ezor…” The connection went out.

Lance wasted no time in running to Allura’s room, and when she opened the door, looking surprised, he told her he needed an emergency meeting.  
She didn’t question him, he looked truly frantic. They hurried to the control room and called the paladins. In six minutes the whole team was there.

Allura turned to Lance, expecting him to say something. He was still in his pyjamas, holding his helmet under his arm.

“Zarkon’s back.” Lance didn’t wait for the news to sink in. “He’s got Lotor and his generals. I know you don’t care about them, but I do. So please, please help me rescue them.”

He didn’t need to say anything else, they could clearly see how distressed he was. And even thought none of then would have done anything about it in other circumstances, they could see that Lance really cared, and they owed him. There was also the fact that Lotor was valuable to the alliance as he knew the empire better than anyone and was incredibly good at strategy.

“We will help,” Allura assured him, “but we don’t know how to find them.”

“Pidge can track the signal using my helm.” He gave the girl the helmet and she started to work on it immediately.  
Shiro took the leadership then. “Everyone, go get ready.” And they left Pidge and Coran to go put on their armours.  
Five minutes later, Pidge had found the location and rushed to put on her armour as well.  
Matt was flying with Shiro, and Lance would go in a fighter. Allura was preparing a wormhole to a location near Ezor’s signal.

Lance just hoped they weren’t too late.

 

* * *

 

They found a ship.

Lance tried for the fifth time to communicate with Ezor or any of the girls, but the line was dead. They attached it without much planning, as it was just a smallish ship with some fighters, it wasn’t anything they couldn’t take, but they didn’t form Voltron. What they needed was to get into the ship, not destroy it. So Lance, Keith and Allura distracted the fighters, while Hunk, Shiro, and Matt searched for the generals.

It wasn’t long until Lance heard Shiro say, “We found them.”

“How are they?” His voice sounded frantic, Shiro seemed to notice it, and reluctantly answered, “Alive.” That, of course, did nothing but worry the blue paladin even more, as the only thing it could mean was that they were too injured to be ‘okay’. But at least they were alive.

“Lotor’s not here,” Pidge stated. Then, as if she was having a conversation with someone, “They took him away? Shit. What if he’s with Zarkon?”

Lance didn’t pay attention to whoever answered Pidge. Yes, they had found the girls, but the mission wasn’t over. He couldn’t leave Lotor in the hands of Zarkon and his murderous mother.

Something Pidge said caught his attention. “Guys, we couldn’t stop whoever is in charge here from sending an emergency signal. They’re still here.”

Barely a second had passed, when a dot appeared in Lance’s screen, the location of Zarkon’s ship. Acxa had saved the team’s suit signal on the fighter so it would recognise them.It was obviously a trap, but it also meant that Lotor actually was there, as only his armour could send that signal to the fighter.  
Chances were that it would take a couple minutes for the team to notice he was gone, and that Keith and Allura would be too busy to do anything about it. So he left the battle and directed his ship to Central Command.

 

* * *

 

Acxa, Narti and Zethrid followed the yellow paladin to his lion, while the black and green paladins and the later’s brother searched for the captain.  
Tears slit down Acxa’s face, her right arm limp on her side; Zethrid limped sightly as her left ear, where flesh had been pierced by a blaster, still oozed blood; Ezor rested unconscious on the yellow paladin’s arms, with a nasty, bleeding cut on her forehead; Narti, Kova on her shoulder, ignored the burns on her tail, it was nothing she hadn’t already experienced before.

She was the less affected by her injuries, so she was also the one more alert; and she knew that they couldn’t trust Voltron right away, not even if they had come to rescue them, and they couldn’t walk right in into the Castle of Lions in such vulnerable state without being certain  
that Voltron meant no harm. But she still hadn’t found a way to escape without the aid of the paladins.

A echo came from one of the side hallways, and she would have missed it if she hadn’t been in guard. She new the other paladins weren’t in that part of the ship, and that if the sound had been made by a sentry, it would have already attacked them.

So it could only be the captain.

The captain that had ordered their half destroyed fighters to be dragged inside the ship, the captain that had commanded the sentries to shoot them and throw them in a cell, the captain that had personally kicked the already injured Ezor inside the cell.

She silently turned the corner, the other girls and the yellow paladin stared at her curiously, but didn’t say anything.  
Narti found him in a room, in the darkest corner. He tried to attack, but even injured, she was fast. Her hand was on his head, his face lost all expression and his eyes would have rolled back if they hadn’t been pupil-less yellow orbs. His nose started bleeding, his ears too. Then his eyes. Dark, sticky blood. And then he was dead.

Narti left the room and returned to the others, they didn’t ask questions, and they kept making their way to the lion.  
That’s when she saw a escape pod, and before the yellow paladin could even register her movements, she had sent him flying down the hallway, Zethrid immediately catching Ezor, with enough strength that it would take him at least half a minute to recover. And that was enough.  
The girls didn’t need to be told anything to know what she was planning, by the time Hunk was back on his feet, the pod was already leaving the ship and the fighters behind.

 

* * *

   
All the effort they had done to destroy central command had been for nothing. It rose, enormous, and as imposing as ever. Lance’s fighter was insignificant next to it.  
He didn’t have much time to consider that maybe it had been an horrible decision to come, alone, as some kind of fighter, a much bigger one, appeared out of nowhere.  
It looked like it had considerably more fire power than the blue paladin’s, Lance had to get out of there.  
Unfortunately, whoever was in the enemy ship didn’t gave him the time. And, not having any other option, Lance found himself flying away from it. His fighter’s shoots would do nothing to the strong-looking exterior of the ship.  
It followed Lance without giving any signs of stopping, and soon, they had left central command behind.  
He had already been to that part of the galaxy, a huge deformed planet, or more like a rock, being the main teller. The enemy cornered him towards it. An insane idea popped up on Lance’s head, he went straight for the planet and landed on it, hoping the galra piloting the ship would have some decency and wouldn’t send him to oblivion from above. He was solely relying on the honour of the enemy but there was nothing else he could do. It had been a terrible mistake to leave alone.

Luckily, when he got out of the fighter, he saw the ship was landing. He took a couple steps to it and took out his sword, if he could injure the galra, he would have enough time to escape.  
The ship’s door slit open and-

Lance’s blood ran cold.

And his mind screamed, _I shouldn’t have come alone, I shouldn’t have come alone, I shouldn’t have come alone._  
There stood the emperor, a big sword on his hand, yellow eyes as frightening as always, shinning behind the helmet. And it finally hit Lance. Zarkon was back.  
He wasn’t supposed to be the one fighting him, it had been something the team had silently agreed upon, the ones to fight Zarkon would be Shiro, Keith, or Allura. But not him, not even after all the training. He wasn’t ready. He was going to die.

The void was empty, there was no one coming to save him.

He could as well die fighting. But for some eternally long seconds, they stood staring at each other.  
And then, as if on cue, they ran forward and swords clashed. Lance’s arm almost broke on the impact, his sword almost went flying. He knew his arm wouldn’t resist something like that again, so started dodging, hoping some idea would come to him.  
He couldn’t win, he was just an human teen, fighting an invincible alien emperor three times his size. He just couldn’t.  
But then, he saw an opening, and he thought that it was crazy, that Zarkon would notice it, and would block it, shattering Lance’s arm. But he was desperate. The altean sword sliced through Zarkon’s armour just where his heart was supposed to be.  
The emperor stopped abruptly and stared at his chest, Lance’s hand still holding the sword. He also stared at it, wondering if it hadn’t all been a dream because there was no way it was actually happening.

Zarkon kicked him on the chest, breaking a couple ribs, and sent him flying to the rocky ground. Lance jumped back up, wincing, knowing he couldn’t let his guard down even for a second. But the emperor wasn’t there and then-

Pain.  
He looked down, there was something sticking through his chest, the sword almost as big as his torso. It was yanked from behind. His legs gave up and he fell on his knees. He felt numb, his head was spinning. Zarkon walked past him towards his ship, Lance’s vision started to blur, he felt cold. The man didn’t say anything, but Lance heard his steps leaving.

He couldn’t breath, there was a weird feeling he couldn’t quite understand on his chest, everything was wet. And red. He couldn’t breath. He took out the helmet, he needed to breath.  
The air was dry, but it had oxygen, it just wouldn’t get to his lungs. He couldn’t breath.

The world spun around, and Lance was lying on his back. There was space and it was endless. His chest was burning. The stars came in and out of focus.

And everything was wet, and there were tears on his eyes, but he didn’t really know why, he didn’t know anything. It was harder to think. He couldn’t breath. Empty void. Alone.

And then his head cleared for a second, and he knew he was dying, and his chest kept burning, and why was it taking so long.

Something was moving, and he felt them, but he didn’t know what they were, all around. There was purple.  
His fingers clawed at the ground, and there were purple spots on the void, and he knew he was hallucinating. Why couldn’t he hallucinate something nice instead of some floating, purple goop?  
His chest kept burning and he couldn’t take it. He just wanted it to be over. It burns, it burns, it burns.

And then the purple vanished, and the void lost it’s stars.


	8. Whispers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bright, yellow eyes stared at him from the mirror, they widened as his own did too. His reflection then moved on it's own, surprise and fear gone, it grinned.

Team Voltron was restless. It had been two days since the rescue mission and they still had no idea of where Lance was, his fighter’s and armour’s locators had been deactivated. Two days since he had run off to presumably search for Lotor. And for all they knew he could be death. Or maybe he had reunited with Lotor’s generals and they had decided to stay hidden for a while until they recovered, but the sinking feeling in their chests told them that the generals and them knew just as much of Lance’s whereabouts.

They kept searching, but they had no idea of where the prince or the blue paladin where. And it was driving them crazy. The paladins didn’t think they could deal with loosing another member once again.

For Keith, it was the routine of going out with Red to search, as he had done when Shiro had been gone; for Hunk, Allura, and Coran, it was spending time trying to find something on the screens of the control room; for Shiro, it was going with Black in the opposite direction of Keith’s search parties.  
But there was still no clue.

 

* * *

 

He had blacked out before, but that time it was as if he had been conscious the whole time, but it all had been dark and empty. Like a really long nightmare of endless blackness.  
It was cold, and he didn’t remember when his chest had stopped burning, he just knew it had. Probably.  
He couldn’t move, or see, or hear. It was all so dark, and he couldn’t feel anything, just the cold that seemed to be coming from inside of him.  
Then, he felt the hard ground beneath him, his finger twitched, and light reached his eyes. The blurry void came into view, the same stars that he had seen… before. How long had it been since he had passed out? And how was he still alive? There was no way he could have survived the wound without a healing pod.  
He stayed there, not moving, for a while, in case his guts would fall out of his body if he tried too. But it didn’t hurt, he could breath. Hadn’t he read somewhere that sometimes the body became numb to pain when it was too much?  
It was weird that he remembered everything that had happened so clearly, he was always disoriented when he woke up after loosing consciousness .  
Maybe he was dead, and that was why it didn’t hurt, he had to be in some kind of astral plane or wherever dead people went to. There was no other logic explanation. But he didn’t feel like he was dead, he didn’t know how that felt, but there was something that told him that was not the case.

Slowly, he moved his right hand to where the huge wound ought to be, the ache on his shoulder that the clash with Zarkon’s sword had caused was no longer there.  
He felt the suit first, stiff and covered in dry blood, the fabric torn, and then he wondered if his hand would go through his stomach. But there was just skin there, smooth, perfectly normal skin.  
He knew he hadn’t imagined it, it had actually happened, the pain had been real. There was no doubt of it.

_What the hell is going on?_

Even if he didn’t have any clue of what was happening, Lance felt weirdly calm, and he felt considerably good for someone that had been impaled with a sword. He decided to try and stand up, if no one had come to help him, he doubted they would in some time, and he was accomplishing nothing lying in the ground. He sat up quickly, still expecting blinding pain to come, but it didn’t. There was a considerable pool of blood around him, his white armour was covered on it, but it looked old and dry, as if it had been there for days. For all he knew it had.  
The blood was there, his suit and armour had been torn apart in the vertical line of the broad sword. He hadn’t imagined it.  
But there he was, breathing, and with no wound.

He tried to stand up, expecting some stiffness in his body, as he had been lying there for hours, but there wasn’t any. Maybe he was actually dead.  
His fighter was still there, Zarkon’s heavy, scarlet footprints still marking the ground. Lance knew he wasn’t supposed to be standing up, not after loosing that much blood. The emperor had left him to bleed out on that unknown planet and his life should have ended like that, he didn’t understand.  
_I should be dead_ , he though, glancing again at the blood-stained ground.  
But he wan’t, and he was glad.

He would think about how he had survived later, he needed to find the team first. Any of his teams.

He walked to the fighter, it still worked perfectly, he could see the location of the castle on its screen. He set the course.  
He felt rested, nothing hurt, he wasn’t even hungry, and he hadn’t eaten anything for hours, maybe days. He would have said it was the shock of the wound, but there was no wound. He felt perfectly normal and it was freaking him out. He hoped Pidge or the alteans had some kind of explanation.

It took more or less half an hour to get to the castle. He found a black t-shirt and sweatpants on a compartment in the fighter and changed, wanting to get off the dirty armour. He did his best to scratch away the blood that had reached his neck, but he was sure there was still some.  
The white castle came into view. Lance went into the fighter’s hangar, and as soon as he stepped out of the ship, the two alteans and the yellow and green paladins were there, Hunk was on the verge of tears. He rushed to hug Lance, “We thought you were dead!”

 _Yeah, me too_ , he wanted to say, but his throat tightened for a second, and he couldn’t get it out. It wasn’t like the times it happened before when he was overcome by emotion, and it wasn’t as if his voice was gone again, it was as if his throat had literally closed.

_Weird._

He tried again, “I’m okay, buddy.” Hunk seemed delighted with his answer and proceeded to wipe away the tears that had gathered in his eyes.

Suddenly, he was being hugged by Allura, “Where were you?” she asked, after she let go.

Lance blinked, surprised. He was about to start speaking of his encounter with Zarkon, when a wave of nausea took over him, and he felt a sharp pain on the back of his head. It all happened in barely a second and no one seemed to notice it, he gulped.

“I…” _I found central command and Zarkon was there and-_ His throat tightened again “I crashed,” _What? No, that’s not-_ “And I blacked out. How long was I out?” _Wait. No. I don’t want to say_ _that. What…_

“Two days,” Pidge answered, “You must have hit your head very hard to be out for that long, you should go to a pod.”

For some reason, he felt panic at the idea, he didn’t want to be anywhere near a pod. “No, I’m okay, I checked. I guess the helm protected me.” He wanted to tell them about the wound, but his mouth wasn’t obeying.

Pidge frowned, “Where’s your armour?”

Lance thought about the bloodied, torn suit in the compartment of the fighter, he couldn’t let them see it. “I found these” he pointed at his clothes, “and decided to change, I’ll take the suit to the laundry later. Right now I just want to take a shower.” Even if that wasn’t what he had really wanted to say, he did want to take a shower.

Pidge looked unsure. “You sure you don’t need a pod?”  
“Yeah.”  
The girl narrowed her eyes. “ How do I know you’re not a clone?”  
Lance wasn’t expecting that question. “I… don’t think they can make a clone in two days…? And you can ask Green…”  
That seemed to satisfy Pidge. “Fair point.”

He was already moving to leave the room when Coran said, “If you do need a pod I’ll be at the control room.”  
Lance turned around and smiled, “‘k, thanks.”

He went to his room, feeling the urge to be alone. Once there, he sat on his bed.

And then, it came back to him that there had be no reason to want to hide the armour, to lie, to leave the room, to not tell them. And he knew he hadn’t wanted to say what he had said.

_I didn’t want to lie about it, there was no reason. I should go to tell Coran and get into a pod, and maybe he’ll now what happened and-_

Another wave of nausea sent him to the bathroom, where he emptied his stomach on the toilet, but after two days of no eating, he just threw up a brown substance, that he knew was blood. It wasn’t good. He had once done an assignment on it and he knew that it could be, and probably was, an emergency. Maybe the wound had disappeared, but it had left damage. He needed to get to a pod immediately. But he just threw up again.

He stood up on shaky legs and flushed the toilet. Suddenly, the weakness and nausea disappeared all together, and he felt fine. Still, he had thrown up, with blood no less, and needed to get immediately to get help.

He was about to leave the bathroom when he started feeling very sleepy, and relaxed, and he closed his eyes…

  
Water was falling on his face and he opened his eyelids, after closing them for what had felt just like a second. He blinked many times, confused. He was in the shower, his clothes off, drops of red water falling to the floor as the dried blood on his chest started to slowly disappear.  
He glanced to the toilet, but there was no sign of the vomit there, so maybe he had imagined it, but he still had no recollection of getting into the shower. Lance’s thoughts were a mess, and after all that had happened in such a short time, he was starting to doubt what had been real and what hadn’t.  
He felt relaxed in the shower, and as he did when he needed a break, he imagined it was rain. The water was warm and as he cleaned, he decided he had imagined the vomiting.  
He would take a very long shower and tell the team what had really happened after it.

 

* * *

 

Pidge had been waiting for a moment to actually talk to Matt. In those two stressful days, she hadn’t found said moment. She knew her brother was in the training room, as he had been the two previous days while Shiro was out.  
He stopped the training sequence when he saw her, and she forgot where she had planned to start. “Do you have… can we talk for a minute?”

“Yeah, sure.” He raised an eyebrow at her, knowing that her nervousness was something unusual. But Pidge hadn’t seen her brother in more than a year, and she didn’t know what she was supposed to say, what to tell him first, what to ask. It was, in a way, as if he was an stranger, and she knew that he had not changed only on the outside. Pidge had been pushing aside a serious conversation with Matt for days, and even with all the things she wanted to say, everything seemed so pointless the moment the conversation actually took place.

They walked out of the room in silence, and after wandering for some minutes, Matt decided to sit on the floor, resting his back on a wall, Pidge followed the example.

“So, you wanted to talk?”

“Yeah, I mean, we haven’t actually talked and I think we should. It’s been a long time since you… were taken, and there’s stuff we should talk and… yeah…”

Matt smiled and shook his head. “God, Katie, why are you so nervous?”

She looked at the ground, feeling embarrassed. “I guess I have been waiting for this moment for so long that I…”  
“Don’t know what to say?” Matt finished for her, she looked up. “I have been waiting for this too, but it doesn’t have to be weird. If you have questions just ask, okay?”

She had had so many questions but there were suddenly all gone.

Matt sighed. “Lots of stuff has happened but things haven’t really changed,” he glanced at her hair and ruffled it softly, “Well, your hair’s changed and you have glasses, but I mean, we’re still siblings.”

He was right. Pidge cut the awkward space between them and leaned against her brother.

“Where’s dad?” she whispered.

Matt tensed. “He… He’s a traitor. I doesn't matter.” Pidge didn't ask again.

There was tense silence, Pidge decided to break it.

“So… Was being a space pirate cool?”

Matt relaxed again. “Yeah. At first…”

 

* * *

   
Keith got out of Red and went to the control room, after yet another search party. Allura and Coran were there, as usual, and they didn’t say anything at first.

“Nothing," he informed. Coran turned around and seemed to notice him for the first time.  
“Oh, yes, Lance is back.”

Keith blinked, not quite processing the words. Had Coran just said that Lance was back?

“He’s… he’s back?” Why had no one bothered to tell him with the comms.

The altean scratched the back of his head. “We forgot to tell you, we got distracted with a very promising clue on Lotor’s whereabouts.”

“I gotta go change”, Keith said quickly ,and left. He wasn’t going to his room, he was going to the blue paladin’s. The metal door slit open and he walked right into a shirtless Lance.

His eyes widened as the blue paladin turned around at the sound of the door opening. Surprise flashed across his face. “Uh, hi.”

“Hey.” Keith suddenly remembered that he had gone into Lance’s too with no purpose or reason. “Coran told me you where back and I wanted to make sure you were doing fine.” He thanked whatever gods there were in space that he had come up with an actual excuse.

“Well, I’m doing fine. Thanks for checking”, Lance looked wary and the red paladin knew he hadn’t completely bought his excuse. He noticed that Lance’s hair was wet, probably after a shower. Of course. That was why he was shirtless.

“Where were you," he blurted out.

Lance stared at him and took a second too long to reply, which was weird on him. “I got attacked, crashed, and apparently blacked out.”, the blue paladin explained.

 _Attacked_. “Shouldn’t you be in a pod?”

Lance visibly tensed. “No, I’m fine. I’ll go see Coran if anything happens.”

Now Keith was the one that wasn’t buying Lance’s story.

He knew about wanting to hide a wound so he wouldn’t worry the others, and he knew that a crash could give someone some serious ones.

“You sure your’e okay? No injuries?”

Lance looked tense even as he raised an eyebrow and replied, “Yeah. Why are you so worried all of sudden?”

Keith knew it was an attempt at his temper, but it didn’t work. He knew Lance had noticed his frown. “You should go see Coran anyways.”

Annoyance became evident on the other’s face. “I don’t think so. But I do think you should leave my room.”

Keith blinked, surprised at the tone of Lance’s voice. He was definitely hiding something. There was no other reason why he would get mad at Keith when the red paladin was doing nothing that would, in normal circumstances, offend him (which he had been doing a lot lately, but Keith was one hundred percent sure he hadn’t messed up in any way in the conversation they were having).

“I think you are hiding something," he stated. And realised a second too late that that was not the right thing to say if Lance was indeed hiding something.

The blue paladin grabbed him by the shoulders, turned him around, and pushed him into the corridor. “You can tell Coran I’m fine," he said, before closing the door and locking it.

Keith stared at the door for a minute before heading to his own room. Why was he always the only one noticing when things were off with Lance? Him of all people? He was probably the only one that had no idea how to act on it. But he wasn’t going to make the same mistake yet again. He was going to keep a cold head and pay attention.

 

* * *

   
Lance sat on his bed, staring at his hands. He kept recalling the conversation, trying to find out why he had snapped at Keith, but he still couldn’t find it. He just remembered his instincts going insane the moment Keith had mentioned seeing Coran, every part of him screaming danger. But it made no sense, and the red paladin was right, he should go to see the altean, what stopped him from leaving his room and going searching for the man was the unease that accompanied the thought.

He thought about eating something, but he wasn’t hungry at all, so he decided to go to sleep, even if the lights outside where still fully on. He _tried_ to sleep, for hours, but he just kept turning around on the mattress and changing position. He wasn’t tired, he should have been. He should have been tired after fighting Zarkon and miraculously healing the wound himself. But he wasn’t.

So he decided to make use of the darkness on the corridors and get the dirty armour on the fighter to throw it away. He hoped there were spare armours on the castle, he would check after getting rid of the destroyed one, and he doubted that it would be able to be fixed anyways.

Lance went for the armour, then to one of the scape routes (that wouldn’t be of much help on an emergency as they would just suck you out into space), left the armour on the floor, sealed the internal door, and flushed the suit into space.

Lance then went to the room where they had first gotten their suits, and was glad to see that each paladin had another armour there waiting for them. He grabbed the blue one and went to his room. He kept his original helm as it was connected to Lotor’s comms and he would know if they ever tried to communicate again. Then, he realised he hadn’t asked the paladins what had happened to the generals and made a mental note to ask the next day.

Back in his room, Lance tried to sleep again and failed, so he went to the training room and kept levelling up.

 

* * *

 

He didn’t realise he had been training the whole night until Keith came for his early morning training. Lance didn’t feel tired or hungry even thought he had been fighting robots for hours.  
Keith frowned at him and he remembered he was still wearing his pyjamas, and that a guy in pyjamas fighting robots was probably a strange sight.  
Keith just nodded at him and joined the fight, the red paladin kept throwing suspicious glances at him, which made Lance wary.  
After a while, Keith said he was heading for breakfast, with an unspoken invitation to accompany him. Lance said he would go get some food later, and the other boy didn’t think much of it as Lance usually ate in the kitchen rather than in the mess hall.

Lance knew he definitely should have been hungry after all the exercise and not eating for three days, but he wasn’t, and he wasn’t feeling weak or dizzy, and it was somehow worrisome. But he still felt that going to see Coran was not a good idea, so he pushed the thoughts aside.

After levelling up four more levels, he took a shower and changed, before heading to the control room to ask what had happened with the girls.

When he asked the princess, Allura didn’t look very comfortable with the subject. “They… escaped. I can’t blame them, really.”

He knew it was a thing they would do, especially after being hurt. They wouldn’t just walk straight into the castle of their possible allies, not while the word possible was still there.  
But at least, he knew they had escaped and were healing and preparing to rescue the prince, he just hoped they would contact him before they risked their lives again.

 

He trained some more and tried to sleep went the lights went out. No luck. The next day wasn’t much different, except he went to the pool after running into the Holt siblings training together, which he decided not to interrupt. He checked that there weren’t any news on Lotor’s location before showering and going to sleep, which was again just him trying to do so. Shiro was there and seemed genuinely glad to see him, Kuron apparently was also very good at avoiding people.

On the third day, Keith had just left the room after training together, when the world spun around and he was left on his knees, heaving. The nausea and the headache were back, but there was nothing in his stomach to empty. And once again, they suddenly disappeared, leaving him doubting if it had really happened.

He thought about eating, but the thought of food didn’t attract him in the least. It had been five days since his last meal and he was starting to get seriously worried, maybe the wound had damaged his sense of hunger of something. He should try to eat, but he decided to do it later.  
There was the possibility that the lack of food was causing the nausea, which was very likely, but it still didn’t make him feel more inclined to try any food.

He decided to just wander around the castle, to see if there was anything else worth doing. He was very pleased when he found there was an artificial natural room with a cow. He went to the kitchen, brought a bucket, and milked the cow that looked a lot like Kattlenecker. He left the bucket on the fridge for Hunk to use. He debated drinking a glass of milk, but for some reason he shuddered at the thought and decided against it.

He went again to the control room and, again, found the alteans there.

Allura informed him, “I ran an analysis on the fighter to search for damage,” she started.

_Oh, god. I’m such an idiot. I said I crashed and the fighters obviously shows I didn’t._

“And I found three holes made by lasers. Hunk already repaired them, it is good the fighter didn’t suffer further damage.”

He nodded, relieved. “Any news?” he asked.

The princess shook her head. “I am afraid not.”

Lance nodded and left to his room. On his way on the corridor, he wondered again why he kept lying about fighting Zarkon, and decided to turn around to go tell them. As soon as he made said decision, as if on cue, the world spun around and shook beneath his feet, a sharp, short pain on the back of his head came with it, and then the hallway went back to normal. There were no alarms, the floor hadn’t moved, it had been just him.

Lance shook his head, and decided to go try to get some rest, even if he couldn’t sleep. Telling his friends was forgotten.

 

* * *

 

He got out of the bed after the lights outside turned on, not having slept a single second.  
Lance went to milk Kattlenecker and found Hunk had used the milk. He then went, as usual, to the training room, and found Keith and Shiro there, so he joined the practice.  
He went to the pool and took another relaxing shower afterwards. After combing his hair and brushing his teeth, he looked up and-

Bright, yellow eyes stared at him from the mirror, they widened as his own did too. His reflection then moved on it's own, surprise and fear gone, it grinned.

He stumble backwards, towards the door, without taking his eyes off his reflection. It stared right back at him, grinning. He had to be imagining. Lance closed his eyes and shook his head, when he opened them again his reflection had the same blue eyes and the pale face he knew he had at that moment.

He continued brushing his teeth, telling himself it had been his imagination, some twisted , horrible product of his imagination, but still just that.

He finished brushing his teeth and looked at the mirror again. Pupil-less, yellow eyes.  
He didn’t think about it and smashed his fist agains the glass, shattering it. Shards fell to the sink.  
Lance grabbed his hand, expecting to see ugly cuts on it and bleeding. The cuts were there, some deep and some merely scratches. But there was no blood, like if the skin was dead, like if he was a corpse.  
Lance started to panic. He didn’t understand, he didn’t understand.  
_What the fuck is happening to me._

He wanted to understand, it didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense. He didn’t know why he kept lying, he didn’t know why he was still alive. But maybe he wasn’t, maybe he was dead. There was no blood on his fist. How.

_No._

Closed eyes, a deep breath.

_I’m just hallucinating, because I’m not eating. Those eyes are not real, the cuts are not real. That’s why there isn’t blood. It’s okay._

_It’s okay._

He opened his eyes. The cuts were no longer there, just skin. Normal skin, not dead. Just hallucinations. Of course.

Lance glanced at the big pieces of broken mirror, lying on the sink or the floor. He picked them up and threw them on the trash.  
He proceed to lie on his bed, his heart beating fast on his chest. But it was beating, and he was okay.

 

* * *

   
He didn’t notice when he fell asleep, it felt like a lifetime away since he had last been able to. He guessed the tiredness was finally catching up with him. But there weren’t any dreams. Just nightmares.

_The blade went through his chest. He was burning. He couldn’t breath. It burned. It burned. So much purple. He hated it. It was all around, dark and moving. There were things in the dark, purple things. It was cold but he was burning._

He sat up on his bed, gasping, sweating. Someone was knocking on the door. Hunk.

Lance took a shaky breath and moved to open it.  
“Hey. We thought that maybe you wanted to eat with us?” If anything, he felt like throwing up.  
He shook his head, and then remembering he could elaborate, he added, “I’m not really hungry.”  
Hunk looked determined. “I haven’t seen you in the kitchen. Not even once. Are you even eating?”

Lance laughed nervously. “Yeah. It’s been, what, a week? If I hadn’t eaten I would be starving and half-“ dead “So yeah, you just haven’t seen me.”

Hunk sighed. “I know. But we’re all worried. Allura said she would come herself and drag you to dinner if you didn’t accept.” Lance didn’t doubt she would.

He gulped. “Okay. Let’s go.”

Hunk smiled and turned around, Lance followed.

  
Everyone was already on their seats, and the food was served. They had obviously been waiting for him.  
The princess smiled. “So Hunk did manage to persuade you.”  
Lance shoot his friend a look. “Yeah, he can be very convincing.”

They started the dinner. Lance didn’t feel like chatting or eating, he hadn’t had time to recover from the nightmare. He just stared at his food.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Pidge asked, without catching everyone’s attention, for which Lance was grateful. But he noticed Keith was staring at them, frowning, but in a worried way. Allura also glanced at his untouched food before continuing chatting.

Lance realised he had no more options. He didn’t answer and just grabbed a spoon and put some food into his mouth.

Hunk’s cooking was delicious, and by the way everyone was enjoying it he knew that particular plate was as well, and he liked the taste of it, but it was as if he was eating gum. It tasted good but he didn’t want to swallow it. He forced himself to. And then again, and again, every time Pidge and Keith threw glances at him. He forced down almost all of it, and he was glad when the meal was finally over. Everyone stood and went to their rooms, Lance did too.  
He hurried as nausea took over.

 

* * *

   
Keith had noticed how Lance forced down each spoon of food, how he seemed like he wanted to be anywhere else than there. And he noticed how Lance rushed out of the room.

So he followed.

Lance went into his bedroom, leaving the door unlocked. Keith went in and the characteristic sound of someone throwing up welcomed him. He carefully went to the bathroom to not scare the blue paladin. Keith, not knowing what to do, looked away until Lance finished emptying his stomach and flushed the dinner down the toilet.

The blue paladin turned around and saw Keith. He froze.

“You’re not telling me you’re okay this time.”

Lance just stared.

“You haven’t been eating, even if you don’t look starved, I know you haven’t.”

Lance was paralysed.

Keith reached a hand to grab the other boy’s arm. “We should go see Coran.” Lance slapped his hand away.

“Get-Get out!” He didn’t sound the least bit intimidating, his voice shacking.

“No. You can’t keep going like that. You’re not telling us something.” Keith reached again.

Lance took a step backwards. “No. Get. Out. Of. My. Room.”

Keith couldn’t understand, why didn’t Lance want to see Coran, what was he hiding that was more important than his health.

“Lance…”

“Out.”

Keith opened his mouth to say something but closed it again. Fine, if Lance didn’t want help then- No. He had to stay calm. Confronting people after they throw up was probably not the best idea. He would try again tomorrow.

“Okay”, he said simply, and ignoring the surprise on the blue paladin’s face, left through the door.

 

* * *

   
It had happened again, it just kept happening.

He just kept getting angry for no reason. He still didn’t understand why he was acting like that. There were so many whys.

He decided it would be better to wait until the next day and apologise then. Sleeping just brought more nightmares. Of yellow eyes, a sword, darkness, and burning.

He woke up the next morning, sweating. He debated taking a shower before going to train.

_No._

It had come from out of nowhere and from everywhere. He felt compelled to agree, why take a shower when he was going to sweat. But as he made his way to the arena he wondered where that very clear though had come from. Maybe it had been one of the lions? But it hadn’t felt like their presence.  
Keith was once again there before him. Lance had to apologise.

“Hey,” Lance said.  
“Hey."

“I… um…I’m sorry for snapping at you. I haven’t been feeling that well lately, but I just don’t think it’s worth going to see Coran. I try to avoid the pods as much as I can.”

“I still think you should go.”

“But I won’t.”

Keith shook his head, exasperated. “You’re here to practice, right?” He said, and started the training sequence.

  
They had been fighting for about an hour when another thought appeared.

_He suspects. He is a threat. Attack him from the back. He trusts you, he will not see it coming._

Lance froze for a second and had to rise up the particle shield to avoid being hit by a robot.  
It scared him. It hadn’t come from him, or the lions, and he was pretty sure it hadn’t been Narti either. Why would he attack Keith? A threat to what? What thing thought he ought to kill Keith for knowing he had thrown up and how the hell had it gotten inside his head?

He focused enough to bring his robot down. The training sequence ended, he turned to Keith.  
“I’ll go get breakfast”, the red paladin announced, and didn’t wait for Lance, he knew he wasn’t coming.

Lance went to his room and got cleaned, worrying all along about the voice he had heard.

Allura called for the team to come to the control room, so he went there and tried to forget about it.

Everyone, except Kuron, who didn’t seem to like meetings, was there. The princess told them they had a clue on Lotor’s location and that it led to a nearby ship. They would leave on the afternoon, three hours from then.

Lance felt a flash of hope at the news, but had to remind himself that it was just a clue and could be false.

The team went to prepare themselves.

 

* * *

   
The hallway was dark and their steps echoed in the silence. He had used the fighter to get into the ship, and Shiro had then divided them in groups: Himself and Matt; Allura, Pidge, and Hunk; and Keith and Lance. They had to check the druid laboratories that Pidge had said were in the direction they were going, after hacking a notepad in a wall.  
Lance didn’t like the idea of coming face to face with the mysterious, creepy galrans, and he could tell Keith was uneasy as well.  
The laboratory was even darker than the corridor, there didn’t seem to be anyone inside, they had probably seen them coming with enough time to hide or escape.

Sheets of paper in what he could only describe as runes lied on the desks, looking odd among all the technology. A shelf filled with small quintessence containers adorned the wall to their left, giving off the usual yellow glow. Lance grew excited at the sight of it. There were the usual space lab equipment, and a metal chair surrounded by what could only be torture tools.  
Lance shivered but his eyes were attracted again to the quintessence, he wanted to get closer.

_Yes._

The voice encouraged him, it was the thing the one that wanted to get closer not him. He shook his head, earning a weird look from Keith.

He sensed her before she appeared. Lance tackled the red paladin to the ground as a beam of darkness flew over their heads. They incorporated quickly.

The witch, Haggar.

His eyes found her yellow ones.  
Every nerve on his body went hyperaware.

_ANOTHER ONE. GO WITH HER. IT IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO. YES._

_GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO GO._

He flinched, as the headache hit him.  
Haggar’s lip formed a painful smile.  
“It seems lord Zarkon didn’t finish the job.”

She knew.

Next to him, Keith looked at him, questioning.

“A paladin,” the witch mused, “one of us.”

She glanced at the shelf.

_You want one, don’t you?_

No. She was inside his head, he had to get out of there. Lance raised his bayard and fired, Haggar banished, appearing some steps to the left.

_We will meet again._

Then she disappeared and din’t materialise again.

“What was she talking about? Lance?”

He knew how he looked. Pale, wide eyes.

“I don’t know,” he said, it came out as a whisper. And it was true.

Keith looked more worried than angry. “Lotor’s not here. Let’s go back.”

Lance nodded and followed the red paladin as he made his way to where the lions and Lance’s fighter were.

 

* * *

 

The metal door to his cell clicked as it unlocked. The prince wondered who had finally come to take him to the torture awaiting him. He had been sitting in the dark cell for, what he could only guess, were many days. A small trapdoor opening only to give him awful food. There was no way out from the cell, not from the inside.

But instead of soldiers or his parents themselves, a pink face and blue eyes stared at him.

“Hey there,” Ezor said cheerfully, her eyes worried. She had no doubt noticed his damaged suit, the bruises on his face after he had struggled with the guards, and the remains of the barely edible food on the corner.

She helped him stand up, his legs felt weak as he had been getting barely enough food to keep him alive and hadn’t used then in the two previous days.

“Acxa’s waiting at the new ship,” the girl informed, and he noticed Narti was standing behind her. He nodded.

They made their way to the hangar, finding dismembered sentries and unconscious soldiers as they went. Lotor had noticed the scars on Narti’s tail and the deep cut on Ezor’s forehead, looking barely healed. They had been hurt, he had given himself up for nothing. Lotor clenched his fists.

The new ship was a medium sized cruiser, which was bigger than their previous one. It had obviously been stolen from the empire, they had probably used it as a disguise to come near central command. The prince realised how dangerous it had been for the generals to go rescue him in the heart of the empire.

The other girls were already inside, and they wasted no time to leave command behind.

He saw the hole on zethrid’s ear and the cast on the pilot’s arm. Ezor’s hand found his shoulder and squeezed it lightly, knowing what he was staring at.

When they were far enough from their enemies, after an hour of traveling, Acxa stopped the ship. No one had said anything in that time, they had sat in silence.

Acxa stood up, Lotor had done so too when the ship had stopped. She walked up to him and hugged him, surprising the prince. He was never really affectionate with any of the generals, but Acxa was always the most formal one. He hugged back.

Suddenly, Ezor was there too, and Zethrid hugged them all and raised them from the ground for some seconds. All his aches were forgotten for a minute. After Zethrid let go, he found himself laughing, the others did too, and it was kind of cathartic. Narti waved her tail from side to side animatedly.

Then his chest started to hurt and he realised he probably had a broken rib.

“Thank you, for coming,” he said. They stared at him, shocked.

“Of course we came!” replied Ezor, as if she couldn’t believe him. “You have done so much for us.”

He wasn’t used to that kind of situations and didn’t know what to do.

Lotor cleared his throat. “I believe an alliance with Voltron is more necessary now than ever, with Zarkon back. We should contact Lance.”

He noticed that the girls were wearing empire uniforms and not their usual black ones, that meant their comms were not the same.

Acxa walked to the controls. “I memorised the frequency of Lance’s helmet,” she said. The prince smiled, of course she had. “Here. Audio only.”

“Lance?” It was Ezor who spoke.

 

* * *

   
His heart was still beating fast. How had Haggar know? What did ‘one of us’ meant?

He repeated the questions on his head again, and again, as the fighter flew towards the castle. He could hear Allura and Shiro saying something over the comms but he wasn’t paying attention. The connection cut and he heard a different voice.

“Lance?”

His eyes widened. “Ezor?!”

“you are okay,” she said, sounding relieved, “We found prince Lotor, he’s with us now. And we think it’s time to establish the alliance with Voltron. Can you warn them we will be there tomorrow?”

They had found Lotor. “Yeah, of course. Are you all okay?”

Silence. “Yes, we are fine,” it was Acxa who said it.

“But we could use the healing abilities of altean technology”, the prince.

“Alright. I’l tell them. See you tomorrow,” he was already landing his fighter.

“Until then.” The connection cut.

 

* * *

   
Lance went into the room, smiling. Which was a noticeable change after the pale, scared face he had had some minutes before.  
The blue paladin proceed to tell them that Lotor had communicated with him and was coming the next morning. Allura seemed to have no problem with it.

The red paladin stared at Lance, trying to find any trace of the fear he had seen, but there was none, apparently forgotten by the news of the coming of the generals. Keith tried to find any sense to Lance’s fear, but for all he knew there was no particular reason for the blue paladin to be that scared of the witch.

Keith couldn’t wait to meet Lotor’s team, and see the people Lance had betrayed them for.

 

* * *

* * *

 

 

_Next chapter preview:_

_The pink general was the first of them to walk into the room, she smiled at Lance, and then proceed to glare at each of the paladins. The tall half-galran woman looked quite intimidating after she smiled and nodded at the blue paladin, and glared at them as well._


	9. Allies and Misunderstandings

The following morning, Lance was fully awake and ready by the time any of the other inhabitants of the castle went to have breakfast, he hadn’t had any nightmares the previous night. He took it in his hands to choose a room for the member’s of the prince’s team, and went around the castle gathering clothes and organising said rooms while the others got ready.  
He asked Allura clothes for Ezor, Narti and Acxa (and some of his favourite beauty products to make the prince’s stay more enjoyable), and the princess found him clothes for the missing general. He asked Shiro for some for Lotor, which he hoped would fit.

Everyone was somehow surprised to see the blue paladin so active and excited, he even found time to milk the cow so Hunk would have more ingredients to work with to prepare lunch.

Two hours after Lance woke up, a cruiser approached the castle with a request for communication. Allura and Coran, the only ones at the control room when it happened, accepted the request, and tried to remain professional as Lotor’s face appeared on the screen, asking if he had permission to approach and enter the castle.

Even if they trusted Lance’s judgement that the prince wouldn’t attack, it was unnerving to see the enemy ship, that still locked like the generic galra empire cruise, get so close to the castle

The newcomers went into the castle hangar’s each in a fighter, and the blue paladin was there to welcome them.

Lance saw as one of the fighter’s door opened but no one came out of it, the other fighters opened, and he barely had barely glanced at Narti, when out of nowhere, a pink figure tackled him to the ground.

“Pinned ya again, “ Ezor said, grinning.

Lance laughed. “I guess should be able to see it coming by now,” he replied, as the girl helped him up. Acxa stared at them with a small smile. Zethrid chuckled, and Lotor sighed while trying to maintain a serious expression. The awkward paladins watching them hadn’t gone unnoticed to him, and he had to establish the alliance before betraying any kind of comfort. Team Voltron were still his former enemies.

“Prince Lotor.” Lance nodded to greet him. Such formality from the blue paladin seemed out of place for the prince, but he understood than Lance too knew that they had to deal with diplomatic matters first.  
The generals seemed to understand the message, as they stood next to Lotor, serious.

Lance stood between the two groups. He turned to look at the paladins, that were standing awkwardly still, and tense. The older Holt was not tense, but on guard, and was inspecting the newcomers as if trying to find something.

“Would you like to start the negotiations?” Allura asked at last.

Lotor nodded. “Yes, if it is fitting.”

The generals followed the group of paladins as the princess guided them to the control room, in silence.

When they arrived there, they stood in from of each other in two separate groups, Lance stood with the generals.

Lotor spoke first. “I would like to establish an alliance with Voltron. I am sure you are aware of the benefits it could bring you, with the knowledge of the empire’s movements I possess.”

“That part of the bargain is very clear, but what do you ask in return?” the princess relied.

“I find myself an enemy of my father and a target of the empire, aiding you is in my best interest.” He paused, then continued, “It is also in the interest of the blue paladin, as he finds himself with ties on both sides.

It was Coran who spoke next. “What about the comet ship, prince Lotor?” Allura could freely address the prince, but Coran, not being on the same ‘status’ had to use his tittle.

“It was destroyed during the attack by Central Command. And, please, I do not wish to be called ‘prince’ as it is clear I am no longer part of the empire and do not wish to be associated with Zarkon anymore.”

The members of team Voltron looked surprised at that.

“Of course. Then the alliance is settled, and we will receive your help in any missions it is required,” Allura stated. Then she glanced at Lance. “Do you wish to stay in the castle?”

Lotor nodded. “Yes, even if Acxa has gotten rid of the tracking devices, a cruiser attracts unwanted attention.” He had glanced at the mentioned girl while speaking, and Pidge was looking at her with interest.

“I will get us to a better location then,” the princess announced, as she moved to create a wormhole. Lotor and Acxa analysed everything that was happening as she did it.

Lance announced that he would get them to their rooms, and left with the generals and Lotor following him. He explained there were clothes for each of them on their rooms, and showed them to each one. Their bedrooms were in a hallway away from the paladin’s, each of them went into their rooms to change from the empire armours, and Lance promised to be back in two hours to show them the most important places.

He took Ezor to her room last and said, “Change fast, I’ll give you the complete tour.” The girl was intrigued by that, and had showered and gotten dressed with clothes not too different to her usual ones in fifteen minutes.

First, Lance showed her the basics: the training room, the mess hall, the kitchen. She tasted the goop and somehow actually liked it. They took the elevator to the pool, and Ezor excitedly asked him when they could get on it. Lance said that maybe the next day, as he would have to find swimsuits, and the other generals would probably wan to go too.

They visited the cow. “Hello! What’s your name?” The cow didn’t answer, and Ezor pouted as Lance chuckled. He showed her how he milked the cow (without actually doing it because he had already done it in the earlier), and she said she had been to a planet where there were animals that did something similar. He told her that there would be something made from milk at lunch.

Then, he showed her the lions, Ezor was amazed. And as if it was some kind of show, the four lions Lance had piloted came to life, making her experience more exciting.

They returned to the hallway with Ezor’s room and knocked on each door. Lance gave another tour through the basics, and as everyone seemed especially interested in the training room, he showed them how to command it, how the levels worked, and how it could be manipulated manually. To try it, they did level 30 and cleared it very fast. Lotor decided to stay there, as the generals followed Lance to the kitchen, they tried goop (Lance couldn’t understand how they could shamelessly like it) and Zethrid and Narti stayed there to feed Kova, Acxa went to her room after saying something about using a computer she had found.

Lance and Ezor went to her room, and she told him what had happened after he had left.

 

* * *

  
Keith expected to find the training room empty, thinking that Lance, who was usually there, was busy, and knowing that Shiro was at his room.  
He did not expect at all to find Lotor, out of everyone, there, already on lever forty, by the time he arrived. He was about to turn around and leave, trying to avoid some awkward encounter, when the training sequence stopped and the galra spotted him.

“Don’t let my presence bother you, you may join me if you wish.”

Keith, thinking it would be rude to refuse the invitation, decided he had no other option but to accept, or he would get on worse terms with the galran.

“Start training sequence, level 121,” the red paladin spoke. And he started fighting off the robots that appeared, trying to stay as far away from Lotor as he could, not trusting him.

Unluckily for him, the prince seemed determined to start a conversation, and that could not be done if they were far away from each other. Keith found himself clashing swords with a robot, as he kept his attention on his unguarded back, that the galra could attack.

“So you are the paladin that faced my father,” Keith didn’t reply, “You have a good technique and it doesn’t seem that reaching level 121 is something easy.”

Keith kept fighting in silence. “Lance did tell me you were the most quiet one. Well, after him. I bet he was the most talkative one before the accident.”

Keith still wouldn’t say anything, but he didn’t like where the conversation was going.

“I wonder, what were you doing while he was all alone?”

Keith was gripping his bayard, looking away from the galran.

“Training sequence, finished.”

“Did you simply decide to ignore him?”

None of them made any move to start the next level.

“Or maybe you simply didn’t care.”

Keith turned around and attacked Lotor, not thinking about the consequences that could have on the newly formed alliance. The galran raised his own sword to meet his, looking pleased. Keith realised he had been expecting it, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t angry. Swords clashed for a minute, the red paladin noticed Lotor wasn’t putting much effort on it, he was playing with him. Angry that he wasn’t even fighting seriously, Keith tried an attack with more strength behind it, only to realise too late that he had left an opening. His bayard was sent flying, and he found himself with the tip of the black double edged sword touching his throat.

“I could teach you how to improve, teach you technique. But not until you give Lance the apology you owe him. I may not know everything that happened, and he may have not said much about it or about you, but between conversations it became clear you played a special role in driving him to desert. And even if you hadn’t, you are still one of the paladins that left him alone when he lost his voice.”

“Think about it,” he finished, as he left the room. Keith thought about what the galra had said, and realised he was right. He had apologised, but barely, and still had to made it up to him.

 

* * *

  
Lance made a mental note to ask Allura to take them all to the pods after hearing Ezor’s story. He didn’t tell what he had gone through, deciding she didn’t need to know.

Remembering about lunch, he told Ezor to tell everyone and take them to the mess hall while he took a look at what Hunk had made with the milk. He discovered it was ice-cream, and decided to stay in the kitchen, while the yellow paladin finished serving the food, and help him carry it to the dining room.

  
Meanwhile, Ezor did what she had been asked and took the team to have lunch. Lance was still serving the plates when they arrived. The pink general was the first of them to walk into the room, she smiled at Lance, and then, noticing the absence of the alteans, who were the ones she had to keep appearances too, proceed to glare at each of the paladins. The tall half-galran woman looked quite intimidating after she smiled and nodded at the blue paladin, and glared at them as well.  
They all took a seat on the opposite end of the table in which the paladins were sitting, and they were all tense, except for Matt, who knew why they were hostile towards the paladins, and had no guilt.

Lance sat next to Ezor, trying to think of a way to break the tense atmosphere, but before he could do anything, the alteans arrived. The generals stopped glaring and the tension lifted, everyone started eating.

“Have you find yourselves at comfort so far?” the princess asked.

“Yes, I personally found the training room quite entertaining.” Keith knew the prince had directed that at him.

The question had been more to formalities and there was not much else to say. Lance once again forced down the food. And after Lotor, who was the first to stand up, left. He hurried to his bathroom alone.

Ezor and him spent the afternoon sparring on the training room.

 

* * *

 

Acxa went out of her room two hours after lunch, thinking about finding another place to use her laptop, an grow more familiar with the castle. She started wandering, but didn’t find a place she liked in a while. The laptop she had found had mainly information about the ship’s engines and details of each room, it also had a fair amount of altean literary works that she had never heard of; and after going through the castle’s information, she made good use of her knowledge on altean and had started reading them.

She was still wandering when she crossed paths with the green paladin. She was a young girl that, according to what Lance had told them, was the technology expert.

“Oh. Hey.” Pidge was glad she hadn’t encountered the tall galra woman or the pink girl, as they were hostile. If anything, Acxa seemed neutral.

“Hi.”

“You are the one in charge of piloting and decoding, right?” the girl asked. Acxa wondered how she knew that, but guessed it was probably from observing the missions.

“Yes.”

Pidge seemed unsure, but still asked, “I need to decode some data for the Blade of Marmora, and I could use the help from someone that knows galran.”

“For the rebels.” Acxa said it without thinking.  
“Yeah well, you are a rebel now too.” The half-galran knew she was right.

“Of course. When?”

Pidge didn’t think twice. “Now. The sooner we have that information, the better.”

Acxa was a little taken aback, not expecting to be trusted with anything until she somehow gained their trust. She followed the paladin to a room, with smaller controls, and sat down on a chair.

They worked until night came.

 

* * *

 

After getting changed, Lance went to pet Kova, and was returning to his room, when Lotor came out of his.

“Remember the braiding?” the prince asked.

Lance smiled. “How could I forget it?” And entered Lotor’s room.

 

He was in the middle on Lotor’ braid when it happened. He had begun to think that the voice had just been his imagination, or that even if it hadn’t, it was gone.  
The thing went crazy once again, but there wasn’t any clear message, just something like a hiss. And somehow Lance knew it was because of the galran.

But Lance ignored it, and kept braiding, trying to enjoy the moment. After a while, the hissing faded, and he was able to enjoy the activity that had become an habit.

 

* * *

 

An hour after Lance and Lotor met, Keith left his room to go searching for the blue paladin and make an attempt at a better apology. He searched Lance’s room, the training room, the pool, the kitchen, the control room, even the cow’s room. But the blue paladin was nowhere to be seen. He guessed he had to be at one of the generals’ rooms, but as he simply did not dare knock on the doors, he walked past the corridor assigned to them, went to Lance’s room again, and returned to the corridor.

The second time, he found the person he had been looking for, but not like he had expected.

Keith saw as Lance went out of one of the bedrooms, the prince appeared then, said something to the boy, and went inside again, closing the door.

Keith instantly assumed, and thinking it explained Lotor’s protectiveness, felt like he had seen something he wasn’t supposed to.

Lance looked cheerful even as he spotted Keith.

“Hey!”

“H-hey.” Keith felt out of place, and was still trying to process what he though he had discovered.

Lance frowned. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I just… I didn’t know you and Lotor…”

Lance raised an eyebrow. “Me and Lotor…?”

“I-I didn’t know you were… together.”

Lance stared at him. For a long time.

Then he started laughing. “The look on your face. Oh, god. I can’t believe you thought… Wait until I tell Ezor.”

Keith was blushing furiously, feeling embarrassed and ashamed that he had rushed to conclusions.

Lance kept talking. “There was something with Ezor, but it was barely anything. I can’t believe you, Keith.”

The red paladin was too busy trying to conserve his dignity to notice it was the most talkative Lance had been in some time. “I need to talk to you.”

Lance raised an eyebrow again. “Well, we are talking.”

Keith gulped. “I already… tried to apologise, but I didn’t say what I should have.” Lance was listening intently. “I thought that you were betraying us, and there’s still a part of me that think that, but I know now that… that we betrayed you first. We weren’t there, but I don’t know if they really noticed you weren’t okay, and I think it’s worse, ‘cause I did. But… I didn’t do anything. And… I don’t know how I can make it up to you… But, I’ll start with trying to give Lotor’s team an opportunity, even if some of them hate me.”

He stared, waiting for Lance to say something.

“Well, that was actually a pretty good apology, And ,yeah, you could start with that. Wanna go to the pool tomorrow?”

Keith didn’t expect that kind of reaction.

“Oh. Okay.”

“So you can be there when I tell Ezor you thought Lotor and me were a thing.”

“Wait. No.”

“Bye.” Lance was walking down the hallway before Keith could argue any further.

“Bye,” he muttered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, thank you so much for your support on this work! I can't believe it reached 10k hits and 1000 kudos!  
> I would also like to thank specially those who have commented, receiving comments after posting a chapter is really the best thing.
> 
> I'm sorry this chapter is shorter than usual, but it's late and I should be sleeping, and I wanted to keep my word this time.
> 
> So, until next Sunday!


	10. The Water Planet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Before the war reaches it's end, team Voltron and the generals go to relax for a while at Segara.

  
Lance had nightmares, dark and cold. The witch appeared on them, smiling. He jerked awake and got ready without bothering to check the hour. It was very, very early, the castle was still deserted and the lights were still off.

He knew he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep, and even if he considered eating something, he still hadn’t felt any hunger, but didn’t feel any more inclined to tell anyone about it. The empty feeling on his stomach was still there when he considered it.

He went to the training room, and had reached level 119 when Ezor entered the room.

“I don’t understand why you’re training so early, we haven’t even had breakfast.” She still looked a little sleepy.

“I already ate, you go have breakfast, I’ll go searching for the swimsuit.” He didn’t want to have to force himself to swallow food again.

Ezor frowned. “Did you really have breakfast?”

Lance wondered why she thought he was lying. “Yeah. Why?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. But get me a cute swimsuit, would ya?” she said, smiling again.

He nodded with a serious expression. “I wouldn’t dare get you anything less.”

“You better do,” she joked, and left.

Lance finished level 120 before heading to the princess’ room. Luckily, Allura was still inside. She opened the door, looking surprised to see him there.

“Lance. Can I help you with something?” Even having barely gotten out of bed, she still looked perfect.

“Yeah. Do you have a swimsuit Ezor could use?”

The princess thought for a second. “Oh, yes. Wait a minute.” She went inside and came back with a light blue two-piece suit on her hand. “I think this will suit her.”

“Thanks,” he said, and grabbed it.

Allura followed him as he walked down the hallway. “Are you heading to the dinning room?” she asked.

“Nah. I already ate.”

“Really?”

He was pretty sure it wasn’t noticeable on his appearance that he hadn’t been eating so he didn’t understand how everyone was suddenly suspecting it.

“Mmmm… yeah.”

The princess stopped walking and turned to look at him. “Lance, if there’s something wrong…”

“No, everything’s fine.” He tried not to think of himself rushing to the bathroom, and Keith’s worried expression. He tried not to think of the sinking feeling on his middle every time he though about how it wasn’t normal, how he ought to tell someone.

She sighed. “Is it something with your throat? You didn’t seem to enjoy Hunk’s cooking the other day.” He didn’t reply. “If it’s that you could always tell Coran, and-“

“No, I’m fine, really,” he interrupted her.

It was clear she didn’t buy it. “I hope you are telling the truth.” And she turned on the corner.

Lance tried his best to not feel guilty. Not that it really helped. He glanced at the blue suit on his hand and decided to focus on going to the pool.

He went to his room, and put on his swimsuit. Lance grabbed two towels and headed to Ezor’s room. She was already there, and he waited on the bedroom as she changed in the bathroom.

She walked out of it, inspecting the swimsuit. It was simple but looked good on her. “Cute enough,” she commented. “Well, let’s go.”

“We have to go get someone else first.”

“Who?”

“Keith.”

“Keith, as in the red paladin?”

“Yeah.”

“Why… why would you want to meet with any of them.”

Lance scratched the back of his neck. “He’s trying to made up for it, and I believe in-“ he stopped himself from saying ‘second’ “ opportunities.”

Ezor didn’t look convinced. “Just because you want him to go. But he better not mess up again, or he’ll have to answer to me.”

Lance laughed nervously knowing she meant it.

 

* * *

  
They went to the red paladin’s room. Lance knocked. Keith opened the door, surprised at seeing Lance, and then a little scared after seeing the glaring alien standing behind him. He noticed they were both wearing swimsuits.

“I’ll be ready in a minute,” he said, and closed the door.

In reality, he was ready in less than a minute, which had to be some kind of record.

He went out of his room as the door closed behind him.

The pink alien and Lance kept staring at him and it was starting to make it fell uncomfortable.

“Keith,” Lance said at last, “why do you have a towel on your head again?”

“I… I don’t know, I just always do it.”

Ezor had stopped glaring at him, looking entertained.

“Mmm… Okay. Let’s go.”

They walked down the corridor in awkward silence. Keith didn’t understand why the towel on his head was suddenly funny, Lance hadn’t said anything about it the last time.

They took the elevator, and Lance was the first to get into the pool after they reached their destination. He put the towel far enough from the water so it wouldn’t get wet, and dived gracefully into it. Ezor followed, showing her gymnastic skills. Keith awkwardly sat down and slit into the pool, he knew how to swim, but he wasn’t good at diving.

Unluckily for the red paladin, Lance fulfilled what he had said the previous day.

“Ezor, so yesterday I met Lotor to braid his hair at night, and guess what happened?”

“What?” The girl was curious.

Braiding? They had been braiding?

“This guy,” he pointed at Keith, “saw me getting out of the room and though we had been hooking up.”

The girl started laughing really hard. Keith blushed, glancing at Lance angrily. The blue paladin didn’t find it intimidating in the last, and if anything, found Keith’s pouting cute.

“Oh gods, no way,” Ezor said, as she struggled to regain her breath.

After that, and awkward silence followed.

“I’m kinda thirsty,” Lance announced, clearly trying to break the tension. “Do you guys want milkshakes?”

Ezor replied that she wanted to try whatever those were, and the red paladin agreed he wanted one too.

The blue paladin got out of the pool and left to the kitchen.

As soon as Lance left the room, Ezor’s smile turned back into a glare.  
She was looking at Keith. “I don’t know if you’re being sincere about being sorry, but if you hurt him again, I’ll make sure you regret it. I may not be allowed to kill you, but there are other ways to make you pay, is it clear?”

Keith gulped, feeling very small as she glared at him, her eyes cruel and unforgiving, eyes that wouldn’t think twice about killing him. He nodded.

“I know I was… an asshole, and I’m really trying to fix it.”

Her gaze lingered for a second, before she looked away from him, and started swimming laps. Lance arrived with a tray and the milkshakes. He handed them, and started sipping his own. Keith did too, as he tried to stop thinking about how coming had been a mistake.

Ezor tried hers. “It’s so good! It tastes like the ice-cream.”

Lance stopped sipping to answer. “Yeah, well, it’s made of it.”

They finished the milkshakes, and the girl and the blue paladin started swimming around, racing each other, while Keith stayed next to the border, not daring doing anything to infuriate Ezor.

After an hour, they walked to the girl’s room together, and then the boys walked alone to the hallway with their rooms.

“I wish you had had more fun,” Lance said.

“She is… scary.”

Lance chuckled. “She’s got this dark side or something, it can be very intimidating. But she won’t do anything. I promise.”

Keith was still feeling nervous. “I guess going to the pool is not really my thing.”

Lance hummed in agreement.

They reached their rooms. “Well, I guess I’ll se you around.”

Keith frowned. “What about lunch?”

The other boy didn’t answer.

“Lance-“

“Bye” And he closed the door to his room.

Keith told himself that if he had enough energy to train and race around the pool, he must be eating something.

 

* * *

 

It had been a bad idea, a very bad idea. For a moment Lance had thought that everything had gone back to normal, the milkshake had tasted great, and it had even reminded him of Earth. But not so long after that, the nausea had started resurfacing, and by the time they had taken Ezor to her room, he was trying hard not to grimace. He wiped his mouth, after managing to leave the toilet, and looked up to glance at himself at the mirror. But of course, there was nothing there but some lose shards still clinging to the wall.

 

Later that day, the blue paladin went to the prince’s room for the usual meeting. Lotor told him the beauty products the castle had were pretty good, and said he would personally ask Allura for more, which hopefully would erase some of the tension masked as politeness that was between them. Lance didn’t feel in the mood to braid anything, and the prince seemed to notice that, suggesting for him to go ask the princess if they could use the pods that same afternoon. Lance was relieved to leave.

Allura seems surprised they hadn’t asked first, and had noticed the injuries, but decided to not say anything in order not to suggest any kind of weakness. “Of course, I’ll go talk immediately with Coran.”

It was still early by the time he came back to his room, but he just wasn’t in the mood to do anything. It was sad, considering the day had started pretty well; but there had been a dread accompanying him since he had seen the broken mirror. Lance decided to try to sleep, it worked.

 

* * *

 

Shiro hadn’t been to the training room lately, trying to adjust to having Matt living in the castle, Kuron, and the galrans. Things seemed to have finally calmed down, so he decided it was finally a good enough time to go to said room.  
He didn’t expect it to be empty, not with all the people currently living in the castle, but he wasn’t quite prepared to find one of the generals, he certainly wasn’t prepared to see a robot flying toward his face right after the door slit open. Shiro barely had time to raise the particle shield. The training robot crashed against it and fell to the ground, it’s limbs twisted in odd positions. The black paladin was a little nervous to look at whoever had thrown the robot, which he knew by experience, was heavy. He wasn’t surprised to see the strongest-looking general, Zethrid? staring at him.

“Oh. Sorry.”

But she didn’t look very apologetic.

“Never mind,” he said, reluctantly lowering the shield. Shiro glanced around, taking in the seven broken robots sprawled around the arena. Luckily, Pidge enjoyed fixing the robots.

The galra lady kept staring at him as if trying to figure something out, Shiro didn’t know what to do. I would have been rude to leave right then, but he didn’t know if the woman wanted him there. Zethrid lowered her gaze t the robot at his feet and then back at him again.

“You’ve got good reflexes.”

“…Thank you.”

She casually cracked her knuckles, which was not remotely friendly. Rude or not, Shiro was considering backing away.

“What was your name, again?” the galran asked.

“Shiro.”

She seemed to remember something, and some tension left her, so she seemed a little less threatening. “You’re good. Wanna spar?”

Shiro didn’t know what the sudden change was for, but he wasn’t complaining. “Yeah.”

 

  
Between Zethrid’s strength and Shiro’s robotic arm and still considerable strength, there were ideal partners for sparring. The galran didn’t manage to send Shiro flying easily, and he managed to strike hits of his own. An hour later, they were both tired, at the tension between them had disappeared. They walked down a couple hallways, talking about things each could improve, and finally departed ways, Shiro to his room, and Zethrid to the kitchen.  
The man, who had expected Matt to be in his bedroom, discovered his boyfriend wasn’t there.

 

* * *

 

Meanwhile, said boyfriend was in the kitchen eating ice-cream, surrounded by three other people. Zethrid and Narti, Kova on her shoulder, stood next to each other, leaning against the kitchen counter. Matt and Kuron were sitting on it.  
Without Shiro knowing, Matt had actually been the one making sure Kuron was taking care of himself after he realised the clone didn’t attend to many of the meals and barely spent any time with the team. It had turned out Kuron was afraid they still saw him as an enemy and felt bad for stealing Shiro’s life, even if it had been unknowingly and for a short time. Matt, knowing full well it wasn’t the clone’s fault, had been spending some time with him, and telling him things about earth to fill the gaps in the blurry memories Kuron possessed.  
Matt hadn’t told Shiro anything yet because he knew the man was still trying to figure out how to deal with the clone’s presence, and even though he knew Shiro didn’t blame Kuron for anything, the older Holt understood the whole situation had to be very awkward for his boyfriend. He would tell him when things had calmed down.  
Matt had also befriended the two ladies in the kitchen without the team knowing. It was very easy for him to make friends in general, and as he hadn’t contributed in drawing Lance away, the two generals had nothing against him.

So there they were, eating the delicious ice-cream Hunk had made from Kaltenecker’s milk, while Matt explained how it was made and promised to take the other three to see the cow after he went to visit Pidge.  
To his surprise, Kuron offered to take the ladies there, “I… I can take you there, if you want.” It was a surprise because the clone was shy and awkward most of the time, except when something Matt told him about earth cleared one of his memories and he started narrating it with what could be described as childish wonder. Matt thought Kuron’s personality was a little similar to that of Shiro when there were still studying in the Garrison, but Shiro had never been timid.  
The generals accepted the clone’s offer, and soon the ice-cream was finished, and they were leaving the room. Matt watched them leave, smiling a little at Kuron’s progress.

He then made his way to the room Pidge and Hunk used to decode information, and once there, found Acxa, whom he hadn’t had the opportunity to speak to, sitting next to his sister, and discussing about some symbols in the screen with Katie. Hunk stared at the symbols too, but wasn’t as concentrated as them, so he noticed when Matt entered.

“Hey,” the yellow paladin greeted.

“Hey. Decoding more stuff?”

“Yeah. But Pidge and Acxa are better than me at that, Pidge’s been studying alien languages and Acxa already knows plenty.”

Matt nodded, knowing his sister was always trying to learn more.

Pidge turned around on her chair, finally noticing he was there. “This one is more encrypted than usual,” she said.

“You know I’m good with codes maybe I can help?” Matt suggested.

Just then, Acxa tipped something on the keyboard and the symbols changed to numbers. “Done.” And she turned around.

Pidge glanced at the screen and smiled. “Nice.” She then opened a file in one of the other screens, which had certain numbers next to the word they represented, and started writing the message in english in a tablet.

Hunk stood up. “You know what? I’m going to go prepare dinner not much else I can do here.”

“Sure,” Pidge replied, not looking up from the tablet. The yellow paladin left.

Acxa was still looking at Matt. “You are her brother?”

“Yeah. We didn’t use to look so similar, thought.”

“Well, nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, same.” She didn’t strike Matt as the very talkative type. He decided to return to Shiro’s bedroom. “Well, I’m leaving. See you two later.”

“Bye,” both girls chorused. Matt turned around to leave.

As he walked away, he heard Pidge ask Acxa, “So, where’s this clothes store you were telling me about before? Maybe I can get a dress.”

 

* * *

 

The next morning, Keith decided he would go speak to the prince, and after having breakfast, he waited a quarter of hour so it wouldn’t seem like he had been waiting to speak to Lotor since he had woken up. So the red paladin went to the hallway designed to Lotor’s team, but no one answered when he knocked on the prince’s room. He did it again, but there was still no answer. He heard a door open and Ezor stood out of her room, glancing curiously at him. When she recognised him, she shifted to her usual glare.

“What do you want with prin- Lotor,” she demanded. Keith was getting tired of her being angry with him all the time, even if she had a very valid reason, and did his best to not show how uncomfortable he was feeling.

“He offered me something and I’m here to accept it.” As he had thought, she didn’t like that he hadn’t answered, but Keith realised too late that it wasn’t the best course of action to make her even more mad at him.

“I’m not telling you where he is unless you tell me what you really want. Why would he even offer you anything?”

Keith had two options: telling her what the deal was about, or wandering around trying to find Lotor. The first option would maybe make Ezor at least a little less hostile at him, while the second one would definitely make her angrier at him. Considering she seemed to be Lance’s best friend and was around him most of the time, and that Keith wanted to spend time with Lance, he would have to find a way for Ezor not to hate him as much, so the second option was really not the best one. Or an option at all.

“He said he would teach me swordsmanship if I apologised to Lance.”

Ezor blinked, seemingly having not expected him to give an answer.

“Lance told me you did… but it was only so you could learn swordsmanship?” She wasn’t angry anymore, she was disgusted.

“No!No. I… I mean, he said that, and it made me realise I hadn’t apologised properly, or really done anything to make up for… hurting Lance. And after going to the pool and all, I remembered he had offered to teach me so…”

He didn’t like Ezor being mad at him, but the expression of disgust on her face was ten times worse. “Yesterday I thought maybe you weren’t that bad. But you’re worse. Stay away from Lance, you don’t deserve him.” She turned to leave.

The red paladin had never expected things to go in such a terrible way. “Wait!” he said, but Ezor kept walking to her room. Soon, she would close the door and there would be nothing he could do to fix it.

“I would never… I am sorry. Really sorry. I should have never said what I said, I shouldn’t have forgotten, I should have been there. He should hate me. I know he should. And I know you’re right to hate me, but-“  
She cut his rambling, turning away right in front of her open bedroom door. “Stay. Away. From. Him.”  
Somehow, Keith found the adequate thing to say in his panic.  
“No.”  
It seemed to echo in the corridor.  
“Why. Why not leave it alone? You’ve done enough.” There was something on the way she said it that told the red paladin that it was his last change. If he said the wrong thing, Lance’s best friend would forever hate him.

“Because… I can’t.” She didn’t say anything, so he continued. “I can’t leave it like this. I wouldn’t be able to live knowing I never did anything to fix it. He should hate me, but he doesn’t, so maybe I can fix things.”

“You wouldn’t be able to live knowing what you did? You’re just doing it for yourself.” Her tone was sarcastic but her eyes were ice.

“No. Yes. Yes. You are right. I should… I should stay away.” Keith’s fists were closed tightly on his sides. He had been an asshole, but he had evolved to a selfish asshole. He really was a terrible person.

_If I really cared for him I would have never done what I did. Maybe I am doing this so I’ll be able to live with myself._

He turned to leave.

Ezor sighed loudly behind his back. “Wait. I guess you really do care.”

What?

“You seem to really want to fix things. And it wasn’t as if everything was your fault, what you said to Lance hurt more because it was, well , you. And as long as he’s willing to give you the chance…”

“What do you mean it hurt more because it was me?”

She sighed again. “You two are really just as blind.”

What?

“Next time you discuss with someone you should try to keep calm, you looked like you were going to have a panic attack if I crossed this door.”

Keith blushed. She giggled.

“You’re not that bad. You have been trying to make up a lot more than the others, and they hurt him too. Gotta give you credit for that.”

“Er… Thanks?” he replied, hesitantly.

“Lance said you were awkward. Gods, you really are.”  
Keith suddenly wanted to ask her what else Lance had said about him, but it really didn’t seem the right him to ask at that moment.

“I guess,” he answered awkwardly.

Ezor shifted her weight form her right to her left foot. “I’ve got a way to help you make it up to Lance. I was going to do it anyways but some help would’t hurt.”

Whatever idea the girl had, she knew Lance better than him and it would be better than whatever he could do himself.

“I’m in.”

“Meet me here after dinner. I’ll make sure Lance doesn’t follow. It’s a surprise.”

“Ok.”

“We gotta plan it fast, before pri- Lotor’s wrinkly dad attacks.”

Keith snorted. “I can’t believe you just referred to the mighty emperor of the glorious Galra Empire as wrinkly. How disrespectful.”

Ezor gave a laugh of her own. “You know, Lance said you didn’t joke, guess he was wrong.”

She took a step back into her room. “Got some stuff to do. Until dinner. Lotor, is in the training room, by the way.”

Of course he was there, it wouldn’t have taken Keith that long to find him. Still. Still, he said, “Thanks.”

Heading to the arena, the red paladin wondered how they had gotten from fighting to joking. He decided it was better not to give it too much thought. He wondered the remaining time of what the surprise could be.

As Ezor had said, Lotor was training. The prince never glanced his way as Keith entered, but as soon as he had taken the last robot down, he turned to face the red paladin as if he knew he had been there the whole time. He probably did.

“Lance told me you apologised. So I suppose you are here for a lesson.” Lotor didn’t waste time greeting him.

“Yes.”

“Take out your sword and we will start sparring,” the prince ordered, pointing his black sword towards Keith before taking a fighting stance.

The red paladin took out his bayard and attacked. Swords clashed.

Two hours of sparring and correcting Keith’s stance followed.

 

* * *

 

Lance hadn’t really done anything that day. As usual, he hadn’t gone to have breakfast or lunch, and he hadn’t found it in himself to train.  
He was wandering around, looking for something to do, when he saw Narti petting Kova while leaning on one of the huge columns on the castle’s entrance.

He walked to her, glad to find the girl alone. He wondered if she would be able to tell what the voices in his head where using her psychic powers. He was willing to try.

Kova stared at him as he sat down. He was feeling tired even after sleeping, but he hadn’t been able to take a nap after he woke up in the morning. The cat jumped to his lap and sat there as he stroked it.

The girl had turned her head to him, waiting expectantly. She lifted her hand and turned it around, waiting for him to touch it. So he did.

Lance could feel the connection, but Narti’s presence seemed to be busy with something else and wasn’t quite there. Her hand tightened around his, her body tensed. On his lap, Kova started to wave his tail and looked up at him with intelligent yellow eyes. Lance didn’t like it.

He could hear faint whispers, and purple and yellow flashed in his eyes. Narti was grabbing him so strongly it was starting to become painful.

And then, he heard something that sounded like a thousand little demons laughing.

And in his mind, he heard her scream.

  
Narti let go and jumped to her feet, she irradiated fear, her tail was upright, like a threatened cat. Then, she ran away, leaving Kova behind.

Lance didn’t know what to make of the situation. Kova jumped to the floor and stared at him. Right then, his eyes were not those of a cat, they held too much understanding. Lance wanted to get out of there, whatever was wrong with him had terrified Narti. But not Kova, so he had to get away from the cat.  
He stood up and Kova moved to rub his head against his leg, purring. The voices hummed in agreement.  
He left the cat too, and ran to his room.

  
The yellow he had seen was that of quintessence ,and the purple was from his dreams and the color he had seen when he should have died.  
Thinking of the voices, he realised maybe he wasn’t the only one inside his head.

Lance didn’t leave the room for hours.

 

* * *

 

Keith was itching to know what the surprise was, and had to contain himself from asking Ezor about it during dinner. But he managed to control himself and wait until it was over.

As instructed, the red paladin went to the girl’s room, and found her waiting there. She glanced at him, and then with a “follow me”, started walking. So he followed.

They went to Kaltenecker’s room, which was a fairly good place to discuss something in secret, and was also a very nice place in general. The cow glanced at them as they sat on the ground.

  
“So, what’s the surprise?” he hoped he didn’t sound too impatient.

“You see, Lance once told me he missed going to the sea with his family.” Keith recalled someone, probably Lance or Hunk, saying that the blue paladin used to surf, so he guessed he liked the sea. She continued, “So I thought about going to a planet that has an ocean to cheer him up. We didn’t have the time for it before, but right now everything seems peaceful, for now. So I thought we should go together in case some of us… don’t make it.”

It would be good for everyone to have some vacations even if it was only a day.

“Do you know of a planet like that?”

She smiled. “Yeah! It’s called Segara, I went there once, it’s really nice. I’m sure Lance’ll love it.” Ezor seemed very exited at the prospect of visiting Segara.

“Alright. I’ll talk to the princess. Is there anything special we have to take there?” Keith asked.

Ezor thought about it for a moment. “No. It’s a touristic planet so they have pretty much everything we could need. And I’m sure the princess has quite some money. You’re heroes, so maybe they’ll even give things to you.”

Keith nodded and stood to leave to Allura’s room and tell her of the plan. She would probably say it was good for team bonding and agree.

As he started going out, the girl spoke. “Have you noticed anything odd about Lance?”

He frowned. “I don’t think he’s been eating.”

Ezor looked worried. “So I’m not the only one. I don’t know, he looks fine most of the time, but when he tries to eat he looks ill.”

“He threw up once.” It was a relief for Keith to finally have someone to talk to about his worries for the blue paladin.

Ezor’s frown deepened. “Maybe… Maybe going to Segara will help him get better. You don’t think he’s sick, right?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“He would have told someone if he was…” she said more to herself.

They parted ways after that, and Keith went to the princess’ room thinking that in reality, if Lance was sick, he wouldn’t have told anyone about it.

  
Allura opened the door to her room, surprised to see him there. He didn’t waste much time and quickly went to the point.  
The princess loved the idea, and agreed that it would be good for all of them to have some relaxing time before the war truly started. She left to the control room to arrange things with Coran. Only she, Ezor, Keith, and Lotor would know about it so it would really be a surprise. Telling the prince was necessary as they couldn’t make any big decision without his consent or they would compromise the alliance. Allura said she would tell him herself, and judging by Lotor’s behaviour, Keith knew that he would agree if she explained they were visiting the planet mainly because of the blue paladin.

“I will take care of it,” Allura said, “Go get some rest.”

 

* * *

  
Lance he was doing no good by staying in his room all day doing nothing. Remembering about Lotor’s request to use the pods, he left to find Allura and ask her for the generals and the prince to use them that same night.

He found Allura in the control room excitedly discussing something with Coran. When she caught sight of him, she abruptly cut the conversation and asked if he needed something, all while smiling nervously, which was a completely non-alluraish behaviour. Lance wasn’t in the mood to try and find out what was happening, so he just ignored it and asked her about the pods.

“Of course! It seems I forgot the last time you told me. Take them to the pods’ room and Coran will be there in a tick.” She seemed too eager to get him out of the room but he did’t question it.

“Ok.”

  
He headed to the hallway with all the generals’ rooms and knocked in each door until everyone was standing in the corridor, and explained that they would be spending the night in the pods to heal any injuries they still had. Narti didn’t come out of the room, and Zethrid explained that she had been locked up in it the whole day. Lotor said it was probably better not to bother her.  
He lead them the to the room and waited until they had changed into the special suits, and Coran had pulsed the buttons to seal each of them in a pod before leaving. He thought about how much trust they were putting in their allies allowing to be locked up like that. He guessed they still had him outside to free them, even if he knew Voltron wouldn’t try anything, and Narti, even if she wouldn’t come out of her room.

Once again, he went to his room, and luckily, he slept without dreaming.

 

* * *

 

The next morning, Coran went to the pod’s room early to take the generals and Lotor out. They said nothing hurt anymore, but some of the scars remained.  
After breakfast, Allura called everyone to join her at the control room. And so, Lotor, Coran, Zethrid, Acxa, Ezor, Lance, Keith, Hunk, Pidge, Matt, Shiro, Kuron, and the princess, found themselves in front of the enormous glass of the cockpit, watching a blue planet with islands that looked like white dots, in from of them.  
  
“Paladins and…” the princess started, but seemed at a loss of words. “Generals,” Lotor added. Allura cleared her throat. “Yes, of course. Paladins and generals, we have decided that it would be good to rest and bond as a team before we return to the fight, and thanks to Ezor and Keith’s idea, we will be spending two days in the planet you are seeing right now, Segara.”

Ezor stood forward. “May I speak?” she inquired.

“Yes, of course.”

“Segara is a touristic planet and no doubt there will be people there who recognise you, and so, you could find yourselves surrounded by fans. But, there is plenty to do, like surfing, swimming, fishing, and attending to parties. The segians are very friendly and the food is remarkable. So I am certain you will find your time there enjoyable,” The pink alien finished.  
  
“Thank you, Ezor. Now, please, go search for you swimsuits and be ready. We will be there in fifteen dobosh,” Allura dismissed them.

“Wait,” Pidge said, catching everyone’s attention, “was this supposed to be a surprise?”

Lotor was the one to answer, “Yes, why do you ask?”

Pidge raised an eyebrow. “You thought I wouldn’t notice the castle changing course and that I wouldn’t investigate where we were heading?”

“To be honest, we didn’t,” Keith said.

Pidge seemed disappointed, Matt sighed.

Then everyone started to leave.

Lance walked along with ezor, he looked happy. “It’s funny when you speak all fancy.”

The girl pouted, the corner of her lips twitching. Acxa joined them. “It’s cute, isn’t it?”

The blue paladin nodded, “Gotta agree.”

Ezor glanced at each of them. “Are you teaming against me or something?”

“Whaaat? No. We would never. Right, Acxa?” Lance said, trying to sound offended.

“Why would you think such a thing, darling?” the purple general, asked her girlfriend.

Lance laughed, Ezor was trying not to smile, Acxa looked satisfied. “I didn’t think you had it in you,” Lance told purple girl.

“You would be surprised,” she replied.

“She’s gonna be like this the whole trip, she loves Segara,” Ezor explained.

Pidge joined, standing next to Acxa as they went down the hallway. “Ezor, I’ve never talked to you. But I gotta compliment you on talking fancier than Allura. How did you do it?”

Ezor grunted. “Is it even that remarkable?”

They all nodded. “Yes,” Lance said, “Yes it is.”

“So you are Pidge,” Ezor said, suddenly not sounding as friendly.

Acxa put a hand on her shoulder. “She’s okay.”

Ezor still looked unsure. “If you say so…”

Acxa continued, “Pidge’s my new best friend anyway.”

Ezor stopped walking. “What? I thought I was you best friend!”

“Lance is your best friend,” Acxa pointed out.

“But he’s like, my guy best friend. You are my girl best friend, I thought I was yours!”

“Hey! I thought I was your overall best friend!” Lance said.

“You are,” Ezor whispered, “but you’re supposed to be helping me here.” Acxa rolled her eyes, smiling.

“Wait,” Lance said, looking at Pidge, “Wasn’t Hunk your best friend?”

“Yeah,” Pidge said, smirking, “but he’s like, my guy best friend.”

“See!” Ezor exclaimed, “she knows what I’m talking about.”

Acxa glanced at Pidge, “You are supposed to be helping me here.”

They laughed. The prospect of vacations seemed to have them in a really good mood.

“We should go get our stuff,” Lance said at last.

“Yeah. See you later,” Pidge replied, and left to her room. Everyone did.

 

* * *

 

Kuron was surprised when someone knocked on his door, it wasn’t as if he had many visitors, but right then everyone was supposed to be getting their things, so it was even more unlikely.

He opened the door to find Matt, who was holding something black on his hand.

He handed the simple swimsuit to him. “I thought you probably didn’t have one. Just don’t tell Shiro I stole it from him.”

“I won’t,” the clone said.

“Have some fun when we arrive, ok?”

He would try, so he guessed that counted as well. “I will.” Try.  
The Older Holt turned around and left, Kuron stared after him.

 

* * *

 

Allura heard someone knock on her door and opened it to Zethrid.

“I’ won’t be going. Narti… isn’t feeling well. I will stay and make sure she’s okay.”

“I am sorry to hear that. But it’s good that you are willing to stay back for her.”

Zethrid looked away, “Of course I am.” And left.

 

* * *

   
Standing a little away from the group, Kuron thought they were a strange sight, at least when they were all in swimsuits.  
The princess, the pink alien, and the purple one were wearing two-piece ones; light blue, pink, and black respectively. Pidge was wearing a turquoise one-piece. Shiro, Lance, Keith, and Hunk had shorts that just happened to match their lions’ colours, like plenty of their belongings did, Kuron found that odd. Coran was wearing dark blue shorts, Lotor dark grey ones, and Matt orange ones. The clone had put on the swimsuit Matt had brought him, that was black with a purple stripe around the waist. It unnerved him a little because it was too similar to the empire’s colours for his liking. But he had promised to try and have fun in the trip so he decided to ignore it.

The castle had landed in one of the islands, and the entrance opened to a sunny pink sky, white sand, and trees that looked like palm trees with black fruits hanging from them. There were lots of people and ships around, which was probably because it was a touristic place. There were many different alien species but it was easy to recognise who were the planet’s inhabitants. The segians were tall and had dark red skin. They looked mostly humanoid with hair varying in tones between dark blue and white in each individual. Their most remarkable characteristic was their second pair of hands.  
The segians were walking around the beach carrying surf boards, food, and drinks; or playing sports and welcoming the visitors. Some were seemingly giving surf classes to tourists. When one of them turned to look at the castle, Kuron saw she had green eyes, which shone in contrast to her dark skin and dark blue hair. She caught him staring and smiled, the clone smiled back, but looked away embarrassed afterwards.  
No one seemed to be paying much attention to the castle, too busy in their own things.

They made their way to the buildings in the middle of the island. They were tall, circular and white. Once inside, they were first met by a gift shop, to which Coran excitedly left, promising he would meet them on the way out.

Kuron noticed how everyone’s eyes were shining, and how they all looked relaxed. No one was speaking, too concentrated on admiring the place. Allura made her way to the reception of what Kuron guessed was an hotel. After talking to the receptionist for a couple minutes, the princess told them she had arranged everything and that they could go to the beach, take classes, go to the hotel’s pool and ask for food and drinks. If they wanted to do something else, they would have to ask her, or Lotor, first. Everyone nodded and left.

Kuron followed the group to the beach and thought about his options. Matt was leaving with Shiro and he didn’t want to intrude, and that was about it. He didn’t talk much to anyone and didn’t want to interrupt their plans. He decided to go swim alone.

He passed by the yellow paladin who had quickly found himself surrounded by aliens exclaiming things along the lines of “Can you sign this?”, “I’m your number one fan!”, and “are you single?” He was politely signing objects, thanking people, and turning down his interested fans, thinking about a certain girl. The other paladins had either managed to escape from the beach, or had reached the water on time.

Everyone was too busy with the yellow paladin to notice he looked like the black paladin and mistake him for Shiro.  
Kuron was about to steep in the water when a voice stopped him.

“Hey there.” He turned around to find the segian he had crossed gazes with. She was holding a surf board on each side. “I’m Fir. You look kind of lost, you up for a surf lesson?”

  
To say Kuron didn’t have experience in how to deal with girls his age was an understatement. Yes, he had Shiro’s memories, but they didn’t help him much if they were all blurry. He looked around to see if someone would magically appear and tell him what to do.

As no one did, he had to settle for the more rational answer. “Sure.”

Fir smiled and handed him one of the boards. She then grabbed his forearm and pushed him to the waves.

Kuron realised too late that it probably had been a bad idea. He had no idea of how to surf. Embarrassing himself in front of a pretty girl wasn’t the best plan, but right then, there was no going back.

 

* * *

 

Ezor and Lance sat on the sand while Acxa tried to resolutely teach Pidge how to swim, which just resulted in the younger girl kicking the water and saying she was going to drown. That would have been quite the entertainment if he wasn’t focussed in something else.

“So you planned all this but didn’t think of warning me?” he asked Ezor.

She cocked her hair to the side, puzzled. “Warn you of what?”

Lance was looking at the aliens walking around in swimsuits. “That there were going to be so many hot aliens. The segians are very noteworthy on their own, but there’s also the other species.”

She smirked. “That was part of the surprise. I did tell you I really liked visiting this planet.”

“I don’t need to learn how to swim!” Pidge screamed.

“You could drown in a mission,” Acxa replied.

“So,” the pink girl started, “you looking for a girl, a boy, or an enby?”

“Enby?” he asked.

“Oh, you know,, like, people who aren’t girls or boys. Don’t you have something like that on Earth?” she explained.

“Yeah. I’m looking for anyone really.”

She nodded. “Well, it isn’t going to be difficult to find you someone. Mmmmm… What about them?” she asked, pointing at a yellow alien that was passing by with a drink.”

Lance shook his head. “They remind me of someone, so no. What do you think about her?” He pointed at a pale skinned girl that was playing something that looked a lot like volleyball.

“Cute,” Ezor acknowledged. “What about her?”

And it became like a game, pointing at estrangers to see what each though.

“Not my type, really.”  
“Pretty cute.”  
“Gods, I love his hair.”  
“Really cute.”

Pidge’s screaming stopped as Acxa’s teaching started to success.

 

* * *

  
Everyone had been anxious to go to the beach and had left Allura and Lotor behind. The prince said he was going to the spa, and the princess considered accompanying him, before deciding it would be better to enjoy the sunny day.

She saw Hunk surrounded by a group and decided to stay away just in case she was recognised. She saw a group playing a sport using a net to divide what looked like teams. Intrigued, the princess got closer to watch the match. It looked like fun.

One of the girls playing, blue-skinned with little purple spots and with yellow eyes, called to stop the game. She ran to meet Allura.

“Hey! You wanna play?”  
Th princess blinked and looked around, realising she was speaking to her. “Oh. Yes.”

“Cool. You know how?”

Ten thousand years before, that game hadn’t existed. “No.”

The girl answered without missing a beat. “You’ll pick it up. Come on.” And she ran back to the court. Allura stood in the previously empty space in the girl’s team, behind her.

The game started again and it didn’t take long for Allura, and the other players, to realise she needed someone to teach her how to play.

The girl then took her away from the group and said she would teach her.

“Alright, so there are two hits. First one is like this.” She demonstrated, joining her hands and extending her arms.  
Allura tried to imitate her, and the girl starting correcting her. “I’m Aira, what’s your name?”

“Allura.”

“Ok, Allura. Squat a little, yeah like that. Hey, your posture is very good. Here, lift you arms a little,” she was standing behind Allura, and grabbed her arms on each side to adjust them. “There you go. And then you hit the ball. The other one is like this.” She simply put her arms up, a little bended, with her hands open. “You gotta touch the ball with the tips of your fingers.”

Allura tried to copy her again. That time, Aira stood in front of her to adjust her arms. “Bend them a little more but don’t stick your elbows out. Perfect. You’re a quick learner.”

“Thank you.”

Allura lowered her arms. The girl was still staring at her face. “Your eyes are beautiful, you know?”  
The princess blinked and blushed. Aira giggled. “Come on, let’s go back.” She winked at the princess and made her wake back to the court.  
Allura regained her composure and joined the game.

It took a while for the ball to reach her, but when it did, she positioned herself and used the first hit to send the ball to far side of the enemy court. One of the players tried to save it but it hit the net on their side and fell to the ground.

“Wow,” Aira gasped, “That’s what I’m talking about!” She smiled brightly at Allura.

They played some more after that. Then, a guy who resembled a tree came from one of the buildings and invited them to have a drink.

“Aira, you got a new friend?” he asked.

“Her name’s Allura,” Aira presented.

“You got yourself a lovely friend indeed,” he said.

Allura blushed again but decided to play back. “Well, thank you. Oh, you’ve got something in your face.”

He wiped his cheek. “What is it?”

“Oh, sorry, It’s just your charming eyes,” she finished. She had learned it from Lance.

The guy smirked. “Aira, I like her.”

“Oh, come on,” she complained, “You’re not going to start flirting here, let’s go get the drinks.”

The princess went with the group, smiling. She decided it was best not to reveal her identity, but asked Aira and the guy, Luke, about their planets.

 

* * *

   
Acxa decided to go spend some time with her girlfriend and Lance, and freed Pidge form the torture of learning to swim. She knew it was necessary and could come handy in a mission, but it didn’t make it any more enjoyable.

The girl walked to the hotel and glanced at the restaurants but found nothing she wanted to try, she wasn’t really hungry anyways. Pidge decided to go see if Coran was still in the gift shop, and even if he wasn’t there, she wanted to see what things they were selling, and maybe she could buy some new clothes for herself.

In the way to the gift shop, she saw something that caught her attention, there was a robotic dog. There was a boy sitting next to it, watching as the dog jumped and waved in metallic tail.  
Paige stopped on her tracks and rushed to the robot, her eyes sparkling, she asked, “Did you build it?”  
The dog walked to the girl and she petted it. Paige turned to look at the boy, waiting for an answer. The alien had grey skin and white, short hair.  
He smiled shyly, “Yeah, took me two months.”  
The green paladin beamed, “Do you know where to get good materials?”  
The boy nodded and proceeded to tell her about a shop in a small planet called Lainus. Then he told her that there was a small shop in the building that sold some basic pieces.

“Can you take me there? I could use some new things to work with.”

“Sure, let’s go.”

And Pidge followed the boy to the shop. They spend the next hours looking through it and discussing mechanics, the dog following them. By the end of it, both had learned new things from each other. Pidge thanked the alien, before leaving to her original destination, the boy said there was nothing to thank him for and left with the metallic dog waving its tail as it followed him.

The green paladin discovered that Coran had left the shop, and was disappointed to find there were only swimsuits and beach dresses in the clothes section that she certainly wouldn’t use after they left the planet, so she joined Lance, Ezor, and Acxa again at the beach. The three of them were swimming, she reluctantly joined them, careful not to go too far from dry land. Not far away from them, she spotted Coran sleeping over a bowl in the sand.

 

* * *

   
It took almost an hour for the crowd of fans to loose their interest in the yellow paladin. When it finally happened, Hunk escaped, not wanting the situation to repeat itself.  
He went over to the food court and observed the foods each restaurant served. After ten minutes, he approached one that offered juices made of the black fruits in the palm trees.

He asked for one beverage. It was sweet but a little acidic, perfect for the thirst the hot weather produced. He asked for another one, and it was still as good as the first one.

Hunk then asked the alien in charge of the place where he could buy some of those fruits.

“Do you plan on making some juice from them?” they asked.

He nodded, “Yeah, it tastes pretty good.”

The alien took a sip form it’s own juice, “It sure does. But, do you know how to make it?”

“Er, not really. But I’m good at cooking, so I probably can figure it out.”

“The trick is putting only half of the fruit for each jar, or the flavour is too overwhelming,” they explained, “you add water and a sweetener to it, and it’s done. The problem is, most people put too much fruit on it.”

“I would probably have done it too.”

The conversation was cut as another customer arrived, and the alien had to attend them.  
After the customer was gone, they continued, “I could sell you some beads.”

“Beads?”

The fruits, they are a little expensive if they notice you’re a tourist.”

Hunk smiled, “That’ great, thanks! I’ll come here later, don’t have any money right now.”

They frowned. “You aren’t going to the party? I don’t think anyone’s missing it.”

Hunk took another sip. “Wait, there’s a party?”

“A big one.”

“You’re going?”, Hunk asked.

“Of course I am. You should too, the parties here are great.”

“I’ll ask my friends. I’ll probably see you there.”  
They made a juice for another customer, but a line was starting to form.

“Well, see you later,” Hunk said, standing up.

“Sure,” they replied, concentrated in their job.

The yellow paladin left to tell the team about the party.

 

* * *

 

Team Voltron, the generals, and Lotor, met at the beach. The princess and the prince looked the most relaxed, but in general, everyone seemed happier. Keith was tired, as he had been swimming laps around the island; Pidge was carrying a bag, dripping water; Lance, Ezor, and Acxa were still wet from swimming; Shiro and Matt had returned dry from wherever they had been; Coran was well rested after napping; Hunk looked like he wanted to say something, but was waiting for the last member of the group, Kuron to arrive.

The clone walked out of the water and waved at a pretty segian who was walking away, holding two surf-boards.  
Matt caught his glance and rose an eyebrow, smiling. The clone blushed sightly.

With all the group members there, Allura and Hunk finally said, in unison, “There’s a party.” Then, they looked at each other. The princess waited for the yellow paladin to speak. He explained there was a big party at night, and that they should go.  
The princess complemented, saying they would have to but some clothes adequate for the occasion, and party would be at sunset, so they would have to hurry.

Everyone agreed to go, and they all headed to the gift shop, the proper malls were in other islands in the planet, but they didn’t have the time to go there.

Girls and boys headed to different sections, each tried different things. When everyone was ready to buy, Coran payed, and they went back to the castle to shower and get ready.

  
They reunited an hour later at the castle’s entrance. The girls were all wearing dresses. Pidge had a simple pink one, sleeveless and with a realistic flower on the left shoulder; Allura was wearing a red dress that had a frilled skirt that reached her knees, her hair was in her usual bun, but with a red flower on it; Acxa had a white flowered dark blue one; Ezor a strapless white dress. The boys were wearing cargo pants and short sleeved shirts. Lance had a dark blue shirt and light pink shorts; Hunk a white and black flowered shirt and black shorts; Lotor was wearing his white spotted dark blue shirt open, and had kaki shorts; Keith had a white long-sleeved linen shirt with brown shorts; Coran a flowered orange and blue shirt and black shorts; Kuron a white shirt and red shorts; Matt dark blue shorts with a white shirt; and Shiro was wearing dark purple shorts, and his light blue shirt open like Lotor’s. They weren’t wearing shoes.

They followed the princess to the party to the hotel’s roof, that had a pool and was perfect to watch the sunset, which was purple in Segara, and to see as the starry night came.

The music was loud, the people were dancing, jumping into the pool, drinking, eating, and in general, having fun. The paladins took a table ,and slowly, some of them left to met their recent acquaintances. Fir went to their table and took Kuron out to dance, as the clone smiled nervously and Matt whistled; the clone didn’t know how to dance but followed the blue alien girl until he could do pretty well by himself.  
Coran left to try the food; Hunk went with him and one the way saw the juice shop alien and went to met them, the yellow paladin and the alien started talking, and moved to the delicious-looked food to taste it as the alien explained what each dish was and how to prepare some of them.

“We’ll be back,” Matt promised, as he lead his boyfriend to the dance floor.  
The princess spotted her new friends in a group next to the pool. Smiling, she said, “I’ll be gone for a dobosh.” As she reached the group and started chatting, the paladins and generals quickly noticed the dobosh would turn into a varga.

Prince Lotor stood up with a serious expression, took out his t-shirt, dropping it in the chair he had been sitting, and ran towards the pool, diving into it. There were cheers as he emerged, and some people went to talk to him.

Lance raised his eyebrows impressed. “He does know how to party,” he said.

“You’d be surprised,” Ezor replied.

Lance noticed her hand linked with Acxa’s and decided it was his time to leave.  
“I’m gonna go dance for a bit, you coming?” he asked the girls, already knowing what they would answer.

“No, thanks. We’ll… be around,” Ezor answered.

Lance nodded and watched as the girls left the table to be by themselves. He turned at the remaining members at the table, Pidge and Keith.  
The green and red paladins looked uncomfortable and out of place. Lance decided it would be good for them to spend some time together, they didn’t interact that much.

The blue paladin turned at the aliens dancing and went started dancing on his own. It wasn’t long until one approached him and joined his dancing.  
“Where are you from?!” the male segian shouted over the music.

“Earth!” Lance yelled back.

“Never heard of it!” the segian replied.

They danced to two more songs and then Lance went for a drink, the segian didn’t follow.  
The blue paladin went back to the dance floor again and danced with another alien, from a species he didn’t know. He glanced at the sides and saw Ezor and Acxa standing next to one of the food tables, kissing. He kept dancing to six more songs.

From the table, Keith stared at the dancing people, arms crossed over his chest.

“You should go dance with him,” Pidge said, next to him.

The red paladin turned to look at her. “What do you mean?”  
Pidge rolled her eyes. “You’ve been staring at Lance and that alien for the last ten minutes. You’re irradiating jealously, Keith.”

Keith shifted on his chair. “I’m not.”

“Come on, just go. Or people will start feeling your negative energy.”

Keith glared at the girl.

“You know what? I’m gonna go meet Hunk’s friend. You can stay here alone if you want to,” Pidge told him, and left towards the yellow paladin.

Keith watched her go. He did want to go dance with Lance, but the problem was, he wasn’t good at dancing. Actually, he knew nothing about it, and would just embarrass himself.

He weighted his options. Sit alone at the table and look like an idiot, or dance and look like an idiot next to Lance. At least then he wouldn’t be alone. He would probably never met the people in that party again, so it didn’t really matter, and Lance hadn’t been mocking him lately like he used to.

Keith clenched his fists, remembering the blue paladin had stopped acting like his old self because of him.

But Lance had forgiven him. Kind of. If things went terribly wrong it would be karma, he decided, and stood up.  
He left the table and saw as Shiro kissed the older Holt. Keith smiled softly, remembering how Shiro used to talk about his former classmate back on earth. Then he looked away.

The red paladin walked to the blue one and stood there awkwardly for a few seconds before Lance saw him. The blue paladin stopped dancing and went to him, leaving the alien he had been with alone. The alien girl glared at Keith and left.

“I didn’t know you liked dancing!” Lance shouted over the loud music.  
Keith shrugged. “I don’t really know how.”  
“What?!”  
“I said I don’t know how!” Keith yelled.

The blue paladin started moving. “Just follow!” he said.  
And Keith did, or tried to.  
“Just relax!”  
Easier said than done, Keith thought.  
“You look so stressed!”  
Keith stopped moving. “This is not really my thing, I’m going to get a drink!”

Lance grabbed his wrist. “Oh, no, you aren’t!”

They were close to the pool. The blue paladin started running towards it, dragging Keith. The red paladin had enough time to prepare for jumping.  
There was a splash, and then water and bubbles. The music was muffled and Keith stared at the smiling boy in front of him. Then Lance swam upwards and Keith did too. The loud sounds and cheers hit him.

Lance laughed and swam to the border of the pool, and sat on it.  
Keith was still trying to understand what had happened, but noticed how the wet clothes fell on the blue paladin. He got out of the pool too.

“That was fun!” Lance yelled, even though they were close enough to be able to hear each other without shouting.

“Yeah,” Keith replied

Lance twisted the border of his shirt to dry it. “I still have the rest of the night to teach you how to dance.”

That wasn’t something Keith was looking forward to “No, you don’t.”

“Yeah, I do.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“I will tell Ezor you were mean to me.”

Keith narrowed his eyes. “You wouldn’t.”

Lance nodded severely. “You’ll be lucky if there is anything left of you to bury after she’s done.”

They laughed.

“Alright. But don’t laugh,” Keith acceded.

Lance showed him his hand with only the pinky finger raised. “I swear.”  
Keith linked his finger with the blue paladin’s, and they laughed again.

Lance jumped up. “Come on,” he said, and extended his hand to help the red paladin stand.

“Ok, listen very carefully,” Lance started, Keith nodded. “First, you move your body to the right, then to the left, and keep doing it to the rhythm of the song. That’s it.”

“Lance, be serious.”

“I am! I can dance well enough for both of us.”

Keith sighed. “Fine.” And started doing as told.

Lance was right, he could dance well enough for Keith’s lack of ability to not stand out.

“This is kind of fun,” Keith commented.

“Is it?”  
The blue paladin stood closer.

Keith blushed sightly and muttered a small, “Yeah.”

 

After a couple songs they agreed to go get something to eat. There were lots of things at the food tables, but they decided to take some pink muffins that looked more or less normal.

Matt and Shiro were still on the dance floor,;Allura was dancing with a blue alien girl; Hunk, Coran and Pidge were chatting with the same alien from earlier; Kuron was still dancing with the segian, and Lotor was nowhere to be seen.

Lance finished his muffin and said, “Let’s get out of here.”

“What?” Keith asked.

“Let’s go to the beach. You don’t even like dancing.”

“But you do,” Keith replied.

“I’m going to the beach, will you come?”

“Ok, sure…”

The two boys left the party and went to the lonely beach.

 

* * *

   
“You are leaving tomorrow?” Fir asked.

The clone and the girl were standing next to the table the group had chosen at the beginning of the party. The only sign they had been there was Lotor’s shirt, still lying on his chair.

“Yes. I will try to come again later to…” Kuron said the last part very softly.

“What?” the segian asked.

The clone blushed. “To… come to, you know… to see you.”

Fir smiled. “That’s great! I’ll be looking forward to it,” she continued, “and I wanted to ask you something.”

“What?”

“Is that your twin?” She pointed at Shiro, who was dancing.

“Oh,” Kuron said. “No. I-I am his-his clone.”  
Fir stared at him. “I thought only the galra had the means to create one.”

Kuron flinched, thinking he should have just made something up, anything but the truth.  
“They are.”

Fir frowned. “But if you were created by the galra, what are you doing with Voltron?”

Kuron blinked. “You know who they are?”

“Of course I know,” she said. “Everyone does. If we act as if we don’t is because we understand that you are actual people who came here to have a good time, not be crowded by fans and questions.”

“Thank you,” Kuron said, glancing at the floor. “About your question, I don’t… I don’t know.”

“Hey,” she put a hand on his shoulder, “even if the galra created you, if Voltron thinks you’re alright, who am I to say you aren’t?”

Kuron looked up.

“You are cute, anyways. And polite, and a little shy. You are really nice, in general,” Fir told him, “and I still want you to come to visit later.”

The clone was surprised. He smiled, and replied, “I will.”

Suddenly their lips were together, and Fir’s four arms were on his shoulders and hips.

They broke the kiss to breathe.

“Wanna dance some more?” she asked. He nodded and they went to the dance floor once again.

From a distance, Matt was watching, happy for his friend.

 

* * *

 

“I think that light is another island,” Lance said.

The sky was dark purple and the water looked pitch black. Far in the distance tiny yellowish dots could be seen.

“Probably,” Keith replied.

They were sitting on the sand. The waves licked Lance’s feet.

“Do you know how to surf?” Lance asked. The music sounded far away, the lights were on their backs, and everything made a shadow. The sound of the waves was relaxing.

“No. I only went to the sea, like, once.”

The blue paladin turned at him with an alarmed expression.

  
“No way! The sea’s the best!”

Keith shrugged. “I don’t like it that much, and I went to pools.”

Lance’s eyes were wide. “You can’t be serious!”

“It’s just water,” Keith stated.

The blue paladin shook his head, “God, no. How are we even friends?”

Keith blinked. “We-we are?”

Lance frowned at him. “Of course we are.” Then he stopped. “I mean, we are, right?”

“Yeah. I just wasn’t sure… after… all that,” the red paladin mumbled.

Silence and waves.

“I’m gonna teach you how to surf tomorrow,” the blue paladin stated suddenly.

“That is an even worse idea than dancing.”

“Well, we danced and there were no dead or wounded,” Lance shoot back.

“Ok.”

“Ok?”

“Yeah. You can teach me, tomorrow.”

Lance smiled. “Great.”

Waves and silence.

“Let’s go back to the castle. I’m tired,” Lance said.

And they went to the Castle of Lions and to their rooms.

 

* * *

   
The next day almost everyone slept until late. Allura announced they were leaving after lunch, which everyone was to have at the hotel.

Lotor headed to the spa again, Kuron went to have another surf lesson with Fir, Lance and Keith rented surf boards too.

Ezor saw the princess was heading out.

“Princess, where are you going?” she asked, bored because Lance had left, Zethrid was with Narti ,that still refused to leave her room, and Acxa was still asleep.  
“I am going to met some friends before leaving,” Allura answered.

“Oh.”

“But, I could stay with you until the others wake up,” the princess offered.

“Great.” Ezor didn’t want to spend the next hour or so alone.

“We could… go to the beach and talk,” Allura proposed.

“Yes, thank you, princess.”

Allura smiled. “You don’t have to be so formal.”

“I will try,” Ezor promised. She was used to treating higher officer’s and royalty with respect as disrespect could have resulted in death back in the empire.

They walked to the beach and sat together on a rock, from where they could see how Lance was trying to teach Keith to fight, but he kept falling from the surfboard.

“Did you an Acxa have fun at the party?” the princess asked.

“Yes, it was nice to have time for ourselves,” Ezor admitted. “The friends you are meeting are the ones form last night, princess?”

Allura smiled. “Yes.” Her smile faltered. “I may never see them again,” she whispered.

Ezor sighed. “This war is so messed up.”

On the distance, Keith managed to stand on his board without falling.

The pink girl said, “Go meet your friends. I will be okay alone for a while.”

The princess nodded. “I will see you later.” And left to the volleyball court.

Ezor sighed and headed back to the castle. Maybe she could go to the training room for a while.

 

* * *

   
“Keith, wait. Don’t-“ splash. Once again, the red paladin lost his equilibrium and fell to the ground. Lance glanced at the clone and the segian, surfing in the distance. “Kuron learned really fast.”

Keith emerged from the water. “Ugh. I give up. I probably will never see a surf board again anyways.”

“Maybe,” Lance admitted, “but it’s fun.”

“Let’s go back to the castle or something.”

“Wait. I’ll show you how it’s done.” Lance started swimming with his chest resting on the surf board. Keith watched as he took a wave.

“There’s no way I’ll be able to do that!” the red paladin yelled.

“You will!” Lance yelled back, but lost his equilibrium and slipped.

The water in Segara had a pink hue. Lance stared at the bubbles, and he noticed the seconds pass. but the burning in his lungs, the need for air, wasn’t there.

He started to panic. For a while, everything had been okay. There had been no voices, not even throwing up, which he hadn’t even noticed or been grateful for. But it always came back. He had died, he was dead, he didn’t need to breath.

Lance broke the surface and swam to shore, leaving the board behind.

“Lance?” Keith asked, but he ignored it. He was suddenly feeling sick. He had to go to his room and be alone for a while as he always did.

“Lance, wait!”

He ran to the castle and to his room’s bathroom.

He was flushing the towel when he heard someone panting behind him.

“Lance?”

Keith looked at the broken mirror, the shards still on the garbage bin. “What-“

“Not-not now, Keith. Get out.”

“No. You’re going to tell me what’s wrong with you.”

That irrational panic was back.

“It’s-it’s not your problem.”

“It is.”

“Get out!”

Keith looked hurt. Lance turned around and ran, not knowing even in which direction he was going.  
He stopped in a random hallway and sank to the ground.

_He’s going to find out._   
_You have to escape._   
_He can’t find out._   
_Kill him._   
_So they won’t know._   
_The emperor’s son can’t know._   
_They can’t find out._

His head felt like it was going to burst, the only thing he could hear were the whispers.

“SHUT UP!” he screamed.

They kept telling him to escape the castle before they found out, to run. But he refused to even stand.  
The pain was too much, if he had been able to cry, he would have. And then it was all too much and he screamed.

  
The voices became louder until they weren’t quite whispers and they grew more alarmed.

“Lance?” a soft voice asked.

He opened his eyes. He hadn’t even realised he had curled into a ball.  
Allura,Ezor, Acxa, Pidge and Matt were there, and so was Keith.

“Lance, it’s okay, you are okay,” the princess said.

“Make it stop,” Lance whispered.

Everyone looked dead worried.

“Make what stop, Lance?” Allura asked, making effort to sound collected.

The voices screamed. He flinched.

“The voices,” he replied.

The princess couldn’t hide the concern from her face.

She hesitated. “We will take you to a safe room until we can figure out how to make it stop.”

“Ok,” he whispered.

Ezor and Acxa helped him stand up, his legs were shaky.  
The room was close to the pods, it looked like a normal room but it had a big mirror on a wall, which he instantly knew was a two way mirror, and what looked like cameras.  
He curled in the bed and willed the voices to fucking shut up. They didn’t.  
Lance didn’t even notice when the others left. He lied on the bed, trying to think of something else that wasn’t his terrible headache, and thinking that maybe, he should have stayed dead.

 

* * *

 

On the other side of the two way mirror, there was chaos.

“He hasn’t been eating. Could it have something to do with this?” Ezor asked Coran.

“He broke his mirror and pukes all the time,” Keith said.  
Pidge frowned. “What if this had something to do with that time he went missing for two days?”

“The galra could have done something” Allura admitted.

“But why would he lie?” Hunk asked.

“Maybe he doesn’t remember,” Shiro pointed out.

“But, voices?” Pidge said.

“It could be dark magic,” Allura commented.

“You are here!” Lotor said, entering the room. “I have been looking through all the castle.”

Then the prince spotted Lance on the other side of the window. “What happened?”

“We found Lance after he screamed. He hasn’t been eating for a while for what we have seen and has thrown up what he did eat. He said he could hear voices,” the princess explained.

Lotor had purple skin, so it was strange when he paled. He looked scared.

“Gods, no,” he whispered.

“What is it?” Allura asked.

Lotor clenched his fists. “Zarkon and… my mother, you know her as his witch, have always been like that. I never spent much time with my father, but my mother would sometimes talk to herself, and I never, not even once, saw them eat.”

He stopped. “No, but this can’t be it.”

“Why?” Ezor asked, formalities forgotten.

“Because when I asked my mother about it, she said that they had died. But something had brought them back.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, you are the best. I can't thank you enough for putting up with my inability to keep a schedule (which I hate myself for) and for which I am really sorry.  
> Thank you for all the nice comments and for helping this get almost 15k hits!


	11. The Sleeping Beauty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team doesn’t want to believe Lotor is right, Lance falls asleep and doesn’t wake up, and the Blade of Marmora chooses the worst time to visit.

“But- But that’s impossible,” Pidge stammered. The others looked either horrified or like they hadn’t fully processed the prince’s words. “I mean, we know the story Coran told us, but there is no way Lance was exposed to the rift or to as much quintessence as your… err… parents.”

Allura spoke up, “We don’t know what really happened during the two days he was missing. I never gave it much thought, but the damages in his fighter didn’t show any signs of a crash.”

“But still,” Pidge said, “the rift was destroyed, there is no way he could have had contact with it.”

“We could- we could cheek the records of his fighter. Even if he had… wanted to, I don’t think Lance knows how to erase them. We could see where he went,” Hunk proposed.

“Yes, and we should put him in a pod and run some tests,” the prince agreed.

Keith interjected,“I don’t think he will willingly, I’ve been trying to get him to a pod since he came back. It… didn’t go well.”

The princess sighed, “So we may need the use of force. Ezor, you should go talk to him first, Shiro and Zethrid will be waiting right at the other side of the door in case it doesn’t work.” The three mentioned nodded.

 

Inside the other room, Lance sat on the bed, his back to the wall, and his head hidden between is knees as he sat in fetal position.  
The voices had faded to a merely annoying hiss, but he was still sick, weak, and scared.

He didn’t bother raising his head when he heard the door slide open, or were someone’s steps approached the bed. It moved a little when the person sat on it, and he tensed when a hand touched his shoulder.

“Hey.” It was Ezor’s voice. “Are you feeling better?” He didn’t answer. The hand left his shoulder. “Do you… still hear them?”

“No,” he whispered, without moving.

“Hey, do you know who planned the trip?”

“It was Allura, wasn't it?”

“Nope. It was Keith and me. I get why you would think it was the princess, though.”

Lance raised his head but his arms still covered his mouth. “You said something about convincing Lotor of the trip a while ago, right?”

The girl smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Yeah!”

“But… why would Keith…?” He didn’t really know how to finish the question.

The girl thought before answering. “He asked me if I knew of… a place you wanted to go because he was worried that you were sick.”

Lance glanced at the window. Even if he could only see the reflection of the room on it, he knew the others were watching.  
“The trip… it was fun.” He allowed himself a small smile, but behind his arms, no one could see it.

 

* * *

 

“He asked me if I knew of… a place you wanted to go because he was worried that you were sick.”  
At the other side of the glass, Keith frowned. Why was she lying, and of all things, why about that? It had gotten Lance to raise his head, but still…

Everyone was listening intently to the conversation, broadcasted by the speakers, while staring through the windows. Shiro and Zethrid were positioned next to the door.

“The trip… it was fun.”  
“Yeah, it was,” the pink girl agreed. Then she paused, and glanced at them. “Lance, we have to run some test so we discover what…”

“Is wrong with me?” he finished, shifting to sit normally.

Ezor looked away. “Yes.”

Lance sighed, “I know you have to, but I just… I can't do it.”

Keith saw Shiro and Zethrid tense.

“I can’t. Sorry.”

“You just have to go to a pod,” Ezor pressed.

 _Bad move_ , Keith thought, and closed his eyes for a second to prepare himself to what was to come.

Lance stood up, Ezor did too.

“I can’t… I- I don’t want to,” again, he sounded panicked. He started backing away towards the door.

Ezor glanced at the glass. “It’ll be okay, I promise, it won’t hurt.”

“It’s- It’s not that.”

  
Allura glanced at the two next to the door. “Shiro,” she said.

The man opened the door and entered the room. Lance didn’t even acknowledged it. Zethrid crossed the space and grabbed Lance’s arms, pinning them behind him.

He started struggling. “Hey! Let me go!” But no one in the ship was match for the woman’s strength.

Shiro walked up to them and sighed, “I’m sorry, Lance.” Then he pressed his fingers against the blue paladin’s collarbone, and he went limp.  
Keith winced.  
Then, Zethrid shifted the boy to carry him bridal style, and the paladins and generals followed Allura to the pods room.

Keith stayed behind, and walked into the room where Ezor was still standing, looking shaken.

“Are you okay?” It wasn’t very original but he didn’t know what else to say.

The girl crossed her arms on her chest and looked down. “Yes. It’s just… he looked so scared…”

Keith bit his lip. “I know. I hope we can solve this fast.”

Ezor looked up at him, a hopeless expression on her face. “If Lotor is right, I don’t even know if we can.”

 

* * *

 

They worked together to get the blue paladin into the pod, and Coran started scanning him. He said it would take some time, a couple vargas, so he recommended everyone to leave for a while.

They left the man to work and moved to the living room. Not much later Ezor and Keith joined them, which surprised some that were still under the impression that the girl didn’t exactly like the red paladin.

“Could you tell us all you know about Zarkon’s... condition?” Allura asked.

“Of course,” Lotor replied, and all eyes fixed on him.

The prince sighed. “You seem to know how it all started, with the rift and my mother’s investigation.” They nodded. “I know pretty much the same you do about that. But I do know some details about my mother's investigation. She had some samples of the rift creatures, she still does, and when I was a child I… spent many hours wandering her laboratories. And of course, those creatures are very curious, and once you approach them, even inside their containers, it is possible to hear their whispers.”

There was silence in the room.

“You think the creatures got somehow inside Zarkon and Haggar,” Acxa stated. Lotor nodded.

“Yes. But there is also the question of how they have managed to survive this long. One could think they receive quintessence shots and that that is how they have managed it. But, none of the generals and captains that have received those have lived as long. You can recognise them by their pupil-less eyes.”

“At first I thought all galra were like that,” Hunk mussed.

“As I child,” Lotor continued, “I couldn’t understand why my… parents were different to the other galrans, I didn’t know my mother was an altean back then, and as they didn’t bother to hide any information from me, I started investigating. I discovered that neither Zarkon nor my mother had received any quintessence until after the experiments with it deemed it moderately safe, and that happened three hundred years after the destruction of Altea.” He glanced apologetically at the princess. “And that period of time, even without having in account their age by the time  the fall of Altea took place, exceeds the average life of both alteans and galrans by more than a hundred years. So I reached the conclusion that the story was true, and that either, what had brought them back was keeping them alive, or it was because they had already deceased. Perhaps both.”

No one spoke.

“But that stills leave the question about me,” Lotor said.

the princess spoke. “Yes. I wonder, when did you come to be? I know you hadn’t been born before Altea’s… destruction.”

Everyone’s eyes widened in understanding.

“I was born long after that. I am twenty five deca-phoebes old.”

Pidge asked, “And your eyes… have you ever had quintessence?”

The prince shook his head. “No. I believe it should only be used as a source of energy and nothing more.”

  
“Wait. But that means you were born after they had already died?” Shiro asked.

Lotor sighed, “Yes, and I don’t know what that means.”

“Maybe we should run some tests on you too,” Pidge suggested.

Lotor nodded.

“I’ll accompany him to tell Coran. You should go rest. I will call you when the tests are done,” the princess said.

Everyone left to their rooms, and waited impatiently.

 

* * *

 

“Paladins and generals, the tests have been completed,” Coran announced over the comms.

Five minutes later everyone was in the pods' room, Lotor had already gotten out of the pod, but the blue paladin was still inside.

“So, what were the results?” Matt asked.

The red-haired man sighed and rubbed his temples. “They are quite confusing. He has no injuries, and he is technically alive, his heart is beating. But, aside from his brain, lungs, and a worryingly small quantity of blood cells, most of his other cells are dead.” The man let out a distressed sight. “Which doesn’t make sense, because then he should be decomposing, and I can only guess it’s magic.”

The princess continued, “The quintessence readings revealed that aside from his own, there is another energy inside of him. But we have never seen something like it. It seems Lotor is right.”

Everyone stared in shock.

“But still,” Acxa said, “if it is because of the rift, how could he have had contact with it.”

“Emmm…” Hunk started. “I searched the fighter’s records, and he traveled to a certain point before starting kind of running away. And, then the ship stopped. In the remains of Daibazaal.”

Everyone held their breaths.

“Could there still be remains of the rift there?” Zethrid inquired.

“I don’t know… We haven’t checked since we woke up,” Allura answered. “I think we should head to Daibazaal and investigate.”

“Yes,” Lotor agreed.

“And, what about Lotor’s tests?” Pidge asked.

Coran answered, “Well, he is practically normal, except that the quintessence reading showed a small quantity of the strange energy that is also in Lance. But he hasn’t shown any of the symptoms he has.”

“I haven’t,” Lotor confirmed.

“Alright, I’ll set the course to Daibazaal. We are not far away from it, so get ready.” The princess ordered, and left to the control room, Coran behind her.

“Let’s go,” Shiro said, and most left to to get their armours and weapons.

  
Keith stared at the pod, thinking of how Lance was always the one getting hurt.

“Don’t think too much about it, man,” Hunk said, walking up to him. “There’s nothing we can do about it right now. Let’s go so we can kick some of those creature’s butts.”

“…Okay.”

They walked to the hallway with their bedrooms. Hunk stopped in front of his door.  
“I hope I get the change to make things up to him,” he said, “like you.” And he smiled sadly before entering his room.

Keith went to his.

 

* * *

 

“We should wear our helmets even if there is oxygen, we don’t know how this planet has changed. We will split in groups of two.” Allura turned to Lotor-

He continued, “The princess and I have decided teams that hopefully will work well together, and that will also help improve teamwork. I see Zethrid is not here, as she is probably with Narti, so there will no longer be a team of three people.”

“Lotor will work with Pidge,” Allura announced, the mentioned girl raised her eyebrows at her choice. “I will go with Acxa, Matt with Keith,” the two males glanced at each other, “Ezor with Hunk,” the yellow paladin glanced nervously at the pink girl, who looked away, “and Shiro with Kuron.”

Matt’s eyes widened, Kuron took a step back, Shiro didn’t react.

“I don’t… I wasn’t going to go, I don’t even have an armour,” the clone stammered.

“We need as many people as we can, Coran will provide the armour. And you and Shiro,” she glanced at the man, who had remained silent, “should resolve your… differences.”

“Come on,” Coran said, leaving the room. Kuron glanced at the black paladin one more time before leaving.

  
They discussed each team’s route, and then, after ten minutes, Coran and Kuron came back.  
The clone was wearing a grey armour with a black thin v on the chest, like Allura’s old one.

“We are ready to go, remember, don’t wander too far from your lions,” the princess warned.  
Every team was given a set of containers to keep anything interesting they found. Each lion was occupied and left to different parts of the ruins of Daibazaal.

 

* * *

 

Allura and Acxa worked well together, they even chatted a little but where mainly focussed on the task at hand. They were careful to search every suspicious thing, and had a good balance between friendly and polite.

The other teams… Not so much.

  
The green paladin and the former prince weren’t too bad working together. The silence was too uncomfortable as they hadn’t said a single word to each other outside of mission-related conversations.

“So, emmmm, which level are you in the training room, princ- errr… Lotor?” the girl asked, attempting to break the silence.

“You don’t have to dress me so formally, and level 86.”

Pidge looked at him, impressed. “Wow. That’s… You haven’t even been here for… Wow.”

The prince smirked.

Pidge continued, “I’m only in level 42, even with Shiro making us train every day the past month, I mean, phoeb.”

“He’s a curious man, especially with that arm, my mother designed it personally, but I don’t know much about it.”

“I wonder how he’s doing with Kuron,” Pidge mussed. _Probably not well_.

Facing away from her, the galran said, “That would indeed be something interesting to watch.”

 

* * *

 

The pink alien was walking very fast, Hunk knew it was on purpose.

He was the only remaining member of the paladins that wasn’t in peace with the girl yet, and it just had to be him the one chosen to be in a team with her.

“Wait. You’re walking too fast, we won’t be able to investigate like this,” he said.

Ezor stopped, and then turned to glare at him, then kept walking slower. “Fine.”

Hunk sighed.

“Ok, so what do I have to do?”

The girl stopped and turned to look at him again, frowning. “What?”

“You know, so you don’t hate me anymore. We are a team now, we have to act like one.”

“If Lance forgives you, then I won’t have a problem with you.”

Hunk thought about it. “I don’t think he is mad at me anymore.”

“You think? You haven’t actually asked, have you?”

Well, he knew she was right. “I will, ok? Let’s just do this mission right. Then you can keep glaring at me. I’ll promise I’ll talk to Lance after he… wakes up. I was already planning to.”

Ezor looked away. “Yeah. When he wakes up.”

“Let’s try to find the answers, ok?”

Ezor wasn’t glaring anymore. “Yes. Okay.”

 

* * *

 

“Sooooo… are you gonna tell him?”

Keith frowned at Pidge’s brother. “Tell him?”

“Yeah you know, tell Lance.”

“Tell Lance what.”

Matt laughed. “God, you are so clueless.”

Keith’s frown deepened.

_What?_

“Everyone’s noticed it. I mean, they aren’t blind. You looked, you _look_ so worried about Lance. And in Segara, the way you two were dancing? You don’t dance like that with your friends, I would know that. And you know who else were having surf lessons? Kuron and his kind-of girlfriend.”

Keith blushed.

Matt chuckled. “Man, Shiro was right.”

Keith would have to go talk to the black paladin about what kind of things he was telling his boyfriend.

“So, anyways, let’s catch something so we can go wake up your boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend!”

“Yeah, I know that.”

Keith pouted.

“Hey, lighten up. He haven’t talked since I came back, and I’m dating your brother. Not that we talked that much back at the Garrison.”

Keith sighed. “Shiro’s not-“

“Yeah, yeah, he’s not your blood brother, but you pretty much act like brothers, so it counts.”

“I guess.”

“He says you will confess to Lance before we fight Zarkon, I say you won’t,” Matt commented.

Keith went red again, he would definitely have a chat with Shiro. “Let’s talk about something else. Anything. I don’t know, tell me… about your time with the aliens that rescued you or something.”

Matt smirked, knowing he had won. And started speaking. Keith was pretty sure he was exaggerating some parts.

 

* * *

 

The tension could have been cut with a knife. Kuron walked behind Shiro, keeping his distance.  
He could understand why he made the other man uncomfortable, but that didn’t mean he had to like it. It had also been a shock for him to discover he was a clone, he had probably been alive for less than a year, but it felt like a lifetime. It was weird sharing memories with the black paladin.

He clenched his fist and took a deep breath.

“The princess is right,” he said.  
Shiro turned around.  
“We should talk it out, we have to be able to work together as a team.” God, he couldn’t believe he had actually spoken up.

Shiro sighed. “I know, it’s just…”

“Weird,” they said at the same time. Then looked away, smiling a little.

“I don’t think I have really processed it yet. I thought it wasn’t even possible for you to exist,” Shiro continued, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to say.”

“I don’t know how to feel about having all these memories that I know are not mine,” Kuron admitted. “Most are clouded over. It’s confusing knowing I didn’t exist a year ago, but still being able to remember the past twenty years.”

“Matt’s been helping you with the memories, right?”

Kuron looked at Shiro in surprise, the Holt and him had though the black paladin didn’t know.”

“Yes,” he admitted. “Matt wanted you to have time to sorts things out.”

“I figured he didn’t want to force anything,” Shiro agreed. “I think this is the first time we even talk, sorry.”

“Don’t be. I haven’t exactly done anything about it.”

They kept walking. “Do you ever look at me and have this weird feeling of looking into a mirror, but then the mirror moves and it’s very confusing? Or something like that…” Shiro asked sheepishly.

The clone nodded. “Yes. It’s kind of like a dejavu. Hey, do you remember the girl I met at Segara?”

Shiro replied, “Yeah, Matt kept pointing out how cute you looked together.”

Kuron blushed, the black paladin chuckled.

The clone cleared his throat, “So you remember her. Well, she asked if we were twins, it was strange, but I had to tell her the truth. I mean, I didn’t have to, but I did. I couldn’t have her thinking we were twins.”

“Did she take it well?” Shiro asked quickly.

Kuron smiled, “Fortunately.”

“Wait. Why couldn’t you have her thinking we were twins?” Shiro asked.

Kuron looked down. “It’s… that’s… that’s not a tittle I deserve,” he muttered.

He felt a hand on his shoulder. “You know what?” Shiro said, “from now on, to anyone who asks, you’re my twin.”

Kuron looked up. “What?”

Shiro lowered his hand and took a couple steps back.

“I mean, we don’t want anyone looking down on you because you are a clone, and it’s not like you have done anything to not deserve the ‘tittle’.”

“Alright. thanks.” Kuron acceded. “Let’s kept searching.”

 

* * *

 

“Wait,” Allura whispered, extending her hand to stop her companion. “Did you see that?”

“What?” Acxa whispered back.

Allura walked slowly to a rock and around it. There, in the ground, was a small puddle of purple matter that seemed to vibrate.

“Do you think that is…” Acxa asked.

“Yes.”

The princess took one of the containers that were on a bell around her hips, and pressed a button to open it.  
Then, she approached the creature slowly, and quickly, she put it above the creature, trapping it between the group and the glass.

That’s when it started to shriek.

Even with their helmets, they fought the urge to cover their ears.

“Close it!” the galran yelled.

The princess pressed the button and the lower part of the container closed, muffling the shrieks.  
Three seconds later, the noise turned into a hiss.

“There could be more, we need to leave,” the princess said.

“Paladins, we found it. Head to the castle immediately,” she ordered after turning on the comms.

“We just captured one too,” Keith said.

“The thing almost left me deaf,” Matt added.

“Yes,” the princess replied, “there could be more. He must leave.”

She turned off the comm and turned to Acxa, “I hope that isn't what Lance was hearing inside his head.” They made their way back to the castle.

 

* * *

 

After leaving Daibazaal behind, the paladins meet in the control room.

“So we have two of them,” Pidge said.

“Yes, I’m sure we can get a considerable amount of information from them,” the princess spoke. “Coran, Lotor, and I will examine the rift creatures,” she glanced at the purple things, that flew around inside a bigger container, “I am sorry to say that I believe it is best to leave Lance inside the pod until we know how to proceed.”

Lotor sighed. “Yes, I believe so too, you should go rest while we work on it,” Lotor added.

Most of the people in the room thought how they were getting tired of resting and not being able to do anything, still they left. Some to get a snack, Pidge and Acxa to their computer room, and Keith to his room.

He showered and then left to have the promised chat with his brother.

Shiro was in the living room, talking with Matt and Kuron, which surprised the red paladin because he knew the clone made the black paladin uncomfortable.

“Shiro, can we have a word?”

His brother looked curiously at him but agreed. “Sure.”

They walked to an empty hallway.

Shiro looked worried when he asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong,” Keith replied.

“Is it about Lance?”

Keith huffed. “Nothing’s wrong, and it’s not- You know what? Yes, it is about Lance and how you keep talking embarrassing stuff about me with your boyfriend.”

Shiro started at him, then laughed. “You had me worried for a second there.”

“I’m serious, Shiro. Did you really tell Matt you think I will confess before the war?”

Shiro looked away. “He wasn’t supposed to tell you that…”

Keith pouted.

“But, we are right, aren’t we? You never said you didn’t like him, and I still think you should tell him,” then he muttered, “that way I would also win the bet.”

Keith rubbed his temples. “A bet. I can’t believe you. And if you don’t remember I can’t exactly tell Lance anything because he is trapped inside a pod.”

Shiro stopped smiling. “I know that. I was just trying to distract both of us. I don’t want him to be there either, Keith.”

Keith sighed. “Yeah, I know. Sorry. Just… Stop talking that kind of stuff with Matt. I don’t want him to tease me about it.”

“Alright, I will.”

Keith turned to leave. “I’ll go to my room,” he announced.

“Keith,” Shiro said, “don’t be too hard on yourself”

The red paladin didn’t answer.

 

* * *

 

There was a knock on his door.

Outside stood Lotor. “Would you like another sword lesson?”

“I don’t want to sound rude, but shouldn’t you be examining the creatures?” Keith asked.

“Yes,” Lotor admitted, “but the princess said we all should have some time to rest. But right know I can’t, I could use a spar partner.”

Lotor was being a lot friendlier than usual, which was weird.

“More like a punching bag,” the red paladin replied. “I’m not at your level,” he said, even if it was hard admitting it.

“I’ll go soft on you,” the prince proposed.

“Not very encouraging. But, alright, let me get my bayard.”

 

* * *

 

The next day, Allura called them to the control room after breakfast.

“We have confirmed that the energy inside Lance and Lotor is the same as that of the creatures, which have fussed into one overnight. We still haven’t found a way to destroy them but I’m working on it with my magic,” she informed.

“The problem is that even if we find a way to destroy them we don’t know if Lance, or even I, would be able to survive without the energy,” Lotor added.

“So no good news,” Matt said.

“But,” Lotor continued, “we have decided that we should let Lance out of the pod.”

The atmosphere of the room immediately changed as soon as the news were delivered.

“Really?” Ezor asked, excitedly.

“Yes,” the princess confirmed. “Actually, we will do it right now.

So they went to the pods room and everyone gathered around as Coran opened the pod and the blue paladin fell on Zethrid’s arms.

“Lance, buddy, welcome back,” Hunk said.

But, there was no answer.

“Hey, Lance?” It was Pidge.

“He’s not waking up,” Zethrid said.

“What? No, that’s- that’s not possible, he isn’t wounded,” the princess stammered.

Acxa checked Lance’s vitals. “He is breathing and doesn’t seem to be in pain.”

Coran was reading the report from the pod. “There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with him, he should be just fine.”

“Then why…” Ezor didn’t finish the sentence.

“Maybe,” Keith started, “Maybe it’s the creatures, he didn’t want to get into a pod. It was because of them, right?”

“So it’s their fault,” Ezor whispered.

“I’ll run a regular examination on him. Let’s take him to the medical facility,” coran said, and left followed by Zethrid and the blue paladin on her arms, and Lotor.

“There’s a medical facility?” Hunk couldn’t help but ask.

“I guess,” Keith replied.

 

Then the screens lit up, showing an upcoming call.  
Allura walked to them, looking shaken. Acxa carefully grabbed her hand to stop her from answering. “Princess, Shiro and I will take this, you should take some time to recover.” The galran glanced at the black paladin to silently tell him to approach.

“Yes,” Allura agreed, letting out a shark breath. “I just- I don’t understand it.”

The princess stepped back. Acxa pressed the keyboard and Kolivan’s face appeared.

“Princess Allura, we meet again. We would like-“ he stopped, glancing around the room and at Acxa who was the one actually answering the call.

He visibly tensed. “You. You are one of those generals. What are you-“

“We assure you they are welcomed here,” Shiro interrupted. “We will further explain when we meet personally, that’s why you are here, or am I mistaken?”

Kolivan narrowed his eyes. “No. You are not. We would like to meet in half a varga, you owe us some explanations.”

“And you will receive them,” Shiro replied. The connection cut.

The black paladin and everyone else in the room, sighed.

“Thank goodness Lotor wasn’t here,” Allura said.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

“They had to choose the worst moment possible,” complained Matt.

“Alright, go get your armours and be back here as soon as possible. I’m sure Lotor will be busy until after the meeting is over, and we will call him if we need him. For now, we’ll talk as if the only ones here were the generals, at least until the Kolivan calms down. Understood?” the princess said.

Every left to do as told.

Thirty minutes later, the paladins, and two of the generals, were at the control room, as eight members of the Blade, including Kolivan, entered the room.

“Greetings, princess Allura, paladins.” He didn’t say anything to the generals present, Ezor and Acxa.

“I am glad we meet again,” answered Allura, having recovered her composure.

“I originally came here to inform you that Zarkon is back, and to discuss how to proceed, but it seems there is another matter to discuss.”

“I apologise for not telling you in advance about our new allies,” Allura said.

“Allies?”

“Yes. We have come to an agreement with the generals, which has proved to be a good decision to far. They have their reasons to want to go against the empire.”

Kolivan’s face was steel. “And what would those reasons be?”

“As you may know, Lotor and his generals had some principles that went against the empire’s philosophy which caused the empire to turn against their own prince. At first, it was only the witch, Haggar, that wanted their destruction, but now Zarkon wants it too. It became clear for them that it is better to ally themselves with us than fight the empire alone,” Allura explained.

“I see you already knew about Zarkon’s return, I suppose you received that information from the generals.”

“Yes.”

“But, I don’t see a reason for them abandoning not only two of their comrades, but also their leader.”

As if on cue, Lotor choose that moment to walk into the room.

“Coran says-“ he started, then stopped when he saw the members of the Blade and what was clearly a tense situation.

“Are you serious?” Pidge whispered.

In a beat, the members of the Blade had taken out their weapons, as well as Ezor and Acxa.

“I thought he wasn’t here,” Kolivan said.

“Actually, I don’t see why the situation should change, he has the same reasons as his generals to be here,” the princess replied, clearly nervous.

“He is a prince of the empire, it is a different matter.”

“I don’t see why.” Everyone turned to look at the red paladin in surprise, he wasn’t very vocal at meetings. “He hasn’t enslaved or destroyed any planets, he hasn’t taken or tortured anyone, and he hasn’t even fought against us in any of our operations against the galra. Unless you have any information that says otherwise.”

Instead of answering to Keith’s argument, Kolivan said, “Plenty of my soldiers have died at the hands of him and his generals.”

“You would have killed us if you had had the chance,” Ezor said.

“And you surely know how useful his knowledge of the empire can be, I’m sure not even high officers of the empire have the same level of access as the prince,” Keith added.

Kolivan stared at them. “very well. It is under your responsibility if he commits treason. He would like to meet again in two quintants to discuss how we are going to act. You should contact the other members of the alliance. We can’t let Zarkon regain his power, we must act quickly.”

“Of course,” Allura agreed, “ we will meet in two quintants.”

“Farewell,” Kolivan said before the Blade left.

 

“Well, that was intense,” Pidge commented.

“I had no idea they were here,” Lotor said apologetically.

“I should have told you,” the princess replied, “I thought you would be back until later, my apologies.”

“How’s lance?” Ezor asked.

“Coran said he just needs rest. He should wake up in the next quintants.”

“that sounds like he isn’t sure,” Matt pointed out. Pidge elbowed him in the rib. “Ouch.”

Lotor sighed. “And he isn’t, but for now, we will have to wait.”

 _Great_ , Keith thought, _I just love waiting_.

Zethrid entered the room.

“Hey,” Hunk said, “that speech was great, Keith. I think you just saved the alliance.”

“Uh… Thanks?”

The princess agreed, “Hunk is right.”

“Well done, Keith,” Shiro praised.

Then, Narti came into the room. They hadn’t seen her for days, as she had refused to get out of her room. But Zethrid, who had been able to see her, insisted it would be better to leave her alone.

The girl walked up to one of the smaller screens, tipped something down, and left again, presumably towards her room.

“What- What did she write?” Zethrid asked.

Ezor walked to the small screen and frowned, “What?”

“What does it say?” Lotor asked.

“It says, kill the cat…”

“But that can’t be, she would never want to hurt Kova,” Acxa said.  
“No, the cat’s been acting weird lately, and Narti hasn’t let it into her room. You know that thing came from the laboratories. I think it’s not just a cat,” Zethrid explained.

“So, do we go searching for it and kill it?” Pidge questioned.

“I think the message is pretty clear,” her brother answered.

Allura turned to Lotor, “Should we? She is your general, the choice is yours.”

“Yes. That cat was always around my mother. If Narti doesn’t want it near it probably is better to get rid of it.”

“Ok, this is a weird turn of events,” Pidge commented.

“We should go in a big group so we can corner it an it can’t escape,” Hunk said. “What? Don’t look at me like that, my aunt has a cat, it’s not a good idea searching it in small groups, and we don’t even know what an alien cat can do.”

“He’s right. He could attack us,” Zethrid agreed.

“Wait, I know where it is,” pidge said. “It has been around one of my spots on a hallway close to the castle’s entrance.”

“Let’s go,” Shiro said.

The big group made their way through the castle. And there, in the entrance, as if waiting for them, sat Kova, calmly licking one of it’s paws. When he looked at them, his eyes held knowledge.

“Now,” Allura said, activating her bayard and running at the cat. The three generals present did the same, just as Lotor. The cat jumped at Acxa, trying to reach her face, put she dodged and shoot at him. Kova was very fast, running and jumping between the attackers as if it was a game. He even landed some scratches on them.

The remaining paladins joined the fight, but Keith stayed behind. He waited. Kova jumped onto Shiro’s robotic arm, and as he jumped again, the red paladin stabbed it through the middle. He closed his eyes as something splashed on his face.

 _Oh God, please tell me it’s not the cat’s blood_.

He opened his eyes, and at his feet was Kova, a bright yellow liquid oozing from the wound instead of blood, he had stopped moving.

“Uh, Keith…” Hunk said, “Your face… it’s purple.”

So it was quintessence.

He wiped the remaining quintessence from his face. “Yeah, it’s happened before. I guess it’s because I’m part galra.”

Pidge looked at the bloody scratches on some of their faces, even her own, and at the dead cat. “Ok, what the actual-“

“Don’t,” Shiro warned.

“But, I mean, that was a cat. And it landed so many injuries, and now it’s bleeding quintessence, like, I just-“ She sighted.

“I’ll take the cat to the laboratory,” said Allura. “You should go to the medical facility to threat those wounds, and Keith, you should wash your face. I’ll call you if there is any news.”

The red paladin left quickly, he really wanted to wash the quintessence off.

 

* * *

 

It was almost lunch, the next day, when Coran called, “Paladins! Lance woke up!” And everyone rushed to the medical facility.

Lance was standing up and stretching when most arrived.

“Coran told me what you had figured out,” he said, “so just don’t try to make me eat or force me into a pod and I’ll be okay. Also, I’m sorry for not saying anything, I just… couldn’t,” he apologised.

“We know that, don’t worry,” the princess assured.

“Guys, I know I just woke up, but I still feel tired, so I’m going to take a nap, ok?”

 

They left after that, finally able to resume their activities peacefully.

The blue paladin took a one hour nap before a someone knocking on his door woke him up.

“Hey,” Hunk said, “did I wake you up?”

“Nah,” Lance replied. He knew the yellow paladin really hated interrupting people’s sleep.

“Good. I wanted to apologise, properly. I haven’t asked if you are still mad at me, and everyone else seems to be in good terms with you, but we haven’t talked almost at all. And I miss our conversations, and just being friends, you know? So, I’m sorry, for- for everything.”

Lance put a hand on Hunk’s shoulder. “Hey, buddy, it’s okay. I thought you knew I’m not mad at you anymore, at no one, actually.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Hunk hugged Lance. The blue paladin laughed.

When the yellow paladin let go, he said, “Man, I wish I could bake you a cake or something.”

“Yeah, that’s probably not a good idea.”

“I know.”

“But, you could teach me how to… I don’t really have anything to do so…”

“Yeah! Come one, let’s go. We can bake a cake.”

“Sure buddy.”

 

* * *

 

After baking the cake, Lance went to Matt and Shiro’s room, where he found the older Holt.

“Hey, can we talk?”

“Um, sure. Come in.”

Lance walked into the room and Matt locked the door.

“So?”

“You said a while ago we could talk about stuff I couldn’t talk with the others, right?”

“Yeah. What is it?”

“The creatures… I can’t feel them anymore.”

“That’s great! Why don’t you tell the others?”

“Because Coran said the energy is still.. inside me. And I don’t want to get their hopes up.”

Matt sat on the bed. “I know what you meant. But this time, if you think anything happens that shouldn’t, go talk to Coran or Allura, ok?”

“Yeah…”

“And, Lance, I think there’s someone who wants to talk to you.”

“Who, Hunk? He already did.”

“No. Keith. You should go talk to him.”

Lance frowned. “Why hasn’t he come looking for me if he wants to talk?”

Matt sighed. “Doesn’t matter. He was dead worried when you were in the pod. But, he’s not the most social of us, is he?”

“I guess. Wait, you said he was worried?”

“Aha, so go, talk to him.”

“…Ok… Thanks for listening.”

“No problem, man, anytime.”

 

Lance left the room and went to his own to get his bayard. After talking to Keith he would go look for Shiro. There was something important he needed to do.

Keith was in the training room, which wasn’t surprising. As soon as the red paladin spotted him, he finished the training sequence.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey, Matt said you wanted to talk with me.”

Keith’s eyes widened and then he rubbed his temples. He was blushing a little when he looked up. “Not really, I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“Matt did say you were, in his words, dead worried…”

“I wasn’t _that_ worried,” the red paladin replied without meeting Lance’s eyes.

“I can see right through your lies.”

Keith pouted, Lance laughed.

“Just don’t do that again,” the red paladin said.

“Believe me, I’ll try. Hey, you know where Shiro is?”

Keith looked behind Lance. “He just came through the door.”

The blue paladin turned around. “Shiro, I think we should exchange bayards.”

The man looked confused, “What? I don’t have a bayard.”

“Exactly, and I don’t have a lion anymore, and you need the black bayard to use your special attack with Voltron, and Keith needs a bayard so he can give you the black one,” Lance explained. “So here.” He handed the red bayard to Keith.

“Are you sure of this?” The red paladin asked.

“Lance, you don’t have to,” Shiro said.

“I know, but I want to.”

“… Ok.” Keith grabbed the red bayard and handed the black one to Shiro.

“I can still pilot four of the lions, anyways, so I have that going for myself, and I can take a blaster from the armoury” Lance commented.

“You can?” Shiro hadn’t known about that.

“Pretty neat, huh?”

“Wait,” Keith spoke up, “there is an armoury? You have to show it to me.”

Shiro sighed. “Don’t let him get too close to the knives.”

 

* * *

* * *

 

_Preview_

 

_Something fell on his nose, he looked up. It was raining._

 


	12. The Plan

Keith seemed worryingly happy after getting his two new knives but Lance decided that, if Shiro was simply exasperated, then the liking the red paladin had for knives was just like how some people felt safe with plushies, but the knives just happened to be more pointy and deadly.  
After visiting the armoury, the red paladin returned to the training room to test his new weapons, and Shiro left for his room, leaving the blue paladin by himself. Even after taking the short nap, Lance was still tired and it was almost bedtime (or at least the time Coran had suggested as such) so he went back to his room and slept without being interrupted.

The downside to going early to bed was that the following morning he woke up to an empty castle, which wouldn’t be so bad if not for the fact that all the lights were off and, even after all that had happened, he still worried about the castle being haunted by altean ghosts or something similar. Lance silently went around to see if anyone else was up, but not even the green paladin was outside of her room. With nothing else to do, he headed to the training room and was only a little surprised to see in the records how fast Lotor had levelled up, but Lance wasn’t going to let the former prince take the lead.

Lance was so focussed on fighting that he almost got hit when two voices and the sound of the door sliding open distracted him. Out of habit, he pressed the button on the wall to pause the sentries.   
He didn’t expect the two people to be Lotor and Keith, because as far as Lance knew, the pair had been staying away from each other.

_I really am behind on the castle gossip, I’ll have to ask Matt later._

"Hey," he greeted them. "I didn’t now you two trained together." He was glad that the tensions between paladins and generals were almost completely gone.

Keith’s eyes widened and then he sighed. "I forgot to tell you sorry."

"I thought you knew," Lotor replied.

Lance waved Keith’s apologies off. "I doesn’t matter." He then spoke to Lotor, "Are you teaching Keith?"

"Yes."  
Lance nodded and turned to said paladin. "He’s a great teacher, right?"

"…Yeah," Keith admitted. Lotor seemed pleased at that.

"Well, I guess I’ll let you train then, I’ve already been here for a while," Lance added, turning to leave.

"Wait," the former prince said, "I think that having you to spar could be better than the usual lessons."

"Sure," the blue paladin agreed, unsheathing his black sword.

"Let’s see which of you is the best swordsman," Lotor teased and left to the room’s controls cockpit.

The two boys stood in the arena waiting for the man to give a command to start. Lance already was on a fighting stance while Keith just stood there, confused by the outcome of the conversation.

"You ready? I’m not losing," Lance stated.

Keith blinked, activated his bayard, and took a fighting stance as well. "I’m not losing either." He smirked.

Lance grinned. Lotor announced the beginning of the match and the blades clashed.

For a while, nothing remarkable happened as they both managed to predict each other’s movements and all the attacks were blocked. Then, Lance decided to put more effort on the offence and tried a move he had seen Lotor make and that he hoped would be less predictable. It was blocked, but the red paladin saw the resemblance between the attack and the ones Lotor made while sparring and was hit with the realisation that his opponent had spent countless hours practicing against the high level sentries, and most importantly, had been learning from the former prince for longer than he had.

The second that it took the red paladin to think that was enough for his opponent to successfully disarm him. Suddenly, Keith found himself with the tip of the black sword pointing at his neck. Surprised, he stumbled and tripped, falling.

Lotor announced the winner, and Lance sheathed the sword and extended a hand to help the other stand. Keith took it and was hauled up.

Lance was smiling. "That was intense! I’m lucky that actually worked," he exclaimed.

"You were." Lotor had entered the arena. "But you won because you took the offensive, if you don’t then you’ll never win. That was a good fight, both of you could improve if you sparred more often."

"Mmmm… What do you say about every morning before breakfast?" Lance asked Keith.

"Ok. Yeah," the red red paladin accepted, as he picked up his bayard from the floor and deactivated it.

"If we are done here, then I will go meet with the princess," Lotor commented, walking towards the door.

"Ok, bye!" Lance replied.

"Bye," the red paladin replied more quietly, not being nowhere near close to Lotor as Lance was.

 

"I’m going to the pool. It’s about time for breakfast, you should go," the blue paladin said.

"Aren’t you tired?" Keith asked, guessing that the other had been training for a long time.

Lance scratched his neck uncomfortably. "Not really. One of the perks of being possessed by evil space creatures," he joked.

"Oh." The good mood was suddenly gone. "How-How is that going?"

"I’m okay," Lance assured. "Yesterday and today have been great, but I just worry it’s not for long," he admitted.

Keith nodded. "I know I’m not the best person to be saying this, but I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again, the team will look out for you, we’ll do better this time."

Lance smiled. "Then I trust you can watch my back. But your breakfast could be getting cold, I’m just saying."

Keith shook his head in amusement. "I’ll go, I’ll go. See you later."

 

* * *

 

Later that day, the blue paladin spent time with Ezor, and visited Acxa and Pidge while they worked. The following three days settled into a sense of calm, with no missions and no attacks from the galra; it even gave Lance enough time to learn how to bake a cake with the alien ingredients Hunk managed to get his hands on. But even with the morning spars, the relaxed conversations, and the peace, Lance didn’t forget for a second about the upcoming war. None of them did.

For the other inhabitants of the castle, said peace lasted for a whole week, but for the blue paladin, with the night of the third day came the nightmares.

 

The first one wasn’t exactly a nightmare, at least not at first. He was looking through someone’s else’s eyes, trapped in a transparent container in a laboratory, not galran but altean. He watched a grey-haired woman work, and she would sometimes check the container he was in. She seemed dedicated on what she was doing. But each time she gazed into the glass, she looked more tired, old and unstable. Until her eyes held insanity and she was taken away.

  
It hadn’t been like the previous dreams caused by the creatures, so Lance didn’t tell anyone about it, deciding that maybe it was just a normal dream (nevermind that he hadn’t had any of those since his fight with Zarkon).

  
In the second nightmare, he saw himself destroying a planet. He was a wave of darkness and he watched as people ran for their lives, as he destroyed their homes. That time, he woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t go back o sleep. He decided to keep quiet again, and let the others relax until the war started. He could way until then, couldn’t he? And if it was only the nightmares, then he could deal with it.

But after the third time, he realised that there was no way his head was making up those dreams, and that by keeping quiet he would only engender himself and the team. He had dreamed of being in an empty, dry planet for a long time. Then he had seen two figures fighting, and one fall. He had moved to the body on the ground and he had seen his own face. If that had happened, then the others dreams must have been real events too.

 

* * *

 

Lance was sitting at the dinning table when the others started going to have breakfast. Allura, the first to come, had been surprised to see him there as it had been weeks since Lance had been seen there at that hour.

"Good morning. Is everything alright?" She asked, sitting down.

The blue paladin shifted on his seat. "Good morning. And, not really. But I think we should wait for Lotor at least."

Allura immediately frowned, looking concerned. "We’ll wait then. Do you want me to ask Hunk to prepare you something?"

Lance shook his head. "Still can’t eat."

"I see. Is it… Is it something very bad?"

"Oh no, no. Just see weird dreams, but, you know, better safe than sorry so…"

Allura visibly relaxed. "Yes. I’m happy you came to breakfast today, even if you can’t eat you should still come. Lately the have become very-"

" 'Morning!" Ezor yelled as she entered.

" -animated."

The blue paladin hadn’t stopped to think about the chaos that meals must have turned into with the generals, Matt, and two Shiros.

"I’m sure they have," he replied to the princess. " 'Morning Ezor!"

"Lance! Are you here to have breakfast?" She seemed incredibly happy at the possibility.

He shook his head. "No. I have something to tell you."

Just like the princess had, she frowned. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. It’s really not that bad but I figured it would be better to tell you."

She hummed in approval. "Let’s wait for the others then."

The remaining inhabitants of the castle started pouring into the room in pairs or alone, and all seemed surprised to see the blue paladin there. Shiro and the older Holt came in together, as well as Acxa and Pidge. Lotor, Coran, Keith and Zethrid did so alone.

Lance felt a pang of guilt when he saw Keith go in in his usual training outfit, looking confused. He had forgotten to tell him that he wouldn’t go to their morning spar.

There was no sign of Narti. Hunk was the last one to enter, bringing everyone’s food. Everyone, except for Hunk, received the same explanation the first two girls to arrive had.

 

Shiro voiced what everyone was thinking when he suggested that Lance explained the situation before they started eating. And so, the blue paladin explained what he had seen in in his dreams.

"It felt like they were memories, well, the third one obviously was. Does it sound familiar to you?" he asked, looking at the alteans and Lotor.

Allura sighed. "Yes. That sounds like the destruction of Daibazaal. The other paladins are aware of what happened, but they were told when your voice was gone. I should have thought about telling you about it later, I’m sorry."

The silence that followed was tense. Coran broke it by clearing his throat and relating the tale of the galra’s home planet destruction. When he finished, Lance agreed that it really sounded similar, and felt a shiver run down his spine at the confirmation that he had seen the creature’s memories.   
When everyone started to reluctantly eat their breakfast, glancing at the blue paladin’s empty spot on the table, Lance decided to leave, regardless of Allura’s suggestion. He didn’t want to make it more awkward.

  
An hour later, Lance went to Keith’s room and proposed they went to spar right then, the other agreed.

After noon, the peaceful routine the castle’s inhabitants had settled into was broken by the princess calling a meeting at the control room.   
There, Kolivan appeared on the screen as he explained that it would be best if they met in one of the Blade’s bases that happened to be fairly close to their current location. Allura, Lotor ,and Shiro had already agreed, and all that was left was for the others to receive the news and get ready. As they were only a few hours away from the base, it was decided that there would be no need to use a wormhole. Everyone got into their suits and armours, that they hadn’t worn at all in the past week.

 

"It really is happening now," Pidge mused as they gathered in front of the castle’s door, waiting for it to open to enter the small planet’s atmosphere.

 

They went into the base itself and were told that the meeting was arranged to happen in an hour and a half, as some of the Blade’s members that were attending hadn’t arrived yet, and that they were free to look around the planet.

Most of them decided to wait at either the base or the castle, but the blue paladin wanted to explore, and seeing how Ezor went to the castle next to Acxa, he asked the red paladin if he wanted to go with him.

"Sure," Keith accepted, because he was also curious but had thought that going alone to explore the planet wasn’t the smartest idea.

 

* * *

 

It was a desert, some parts covered in sand and some simply exposed dry, cracked soil. The sky was filled with dark clouds and was more green than blue, but it was still very similar to Earth. For miles and miles, there seemed that there was nothing to be seen but the sand.

Lance glanced up. "Do you think it’s going to rain?"

Keith imitated the motion. "Maybe. Then he looked at the dunes. "This reminds me a little of the shack I lived at," he commented.

"Yeah, it looks a lot like Earth," the blue paladin agreed. "Do you… Do you think we’ll make it back?"

Keith didn’t need to look at Lance to know what expression he had at that moment. "I don’t know, Lance. But we still have to try." Keith didn’t add that even if he would try his hardest for the others, he had no home to go back to.

 

"I miss them." Lance’s voice cracked. The red paladin turned to look at him, concerned. Lance stopped walking. "I miss them so much. And what if I don’t make it back? What if they think I’m dead and never get to know the truth? Scratch that, I am already dead," he said bitterly. "But, I mean, I don’t want to think about what would happen to Earth if we lose."

Keith was a a loss, he had no idea of what to say. The planet itself seemed to come to his aid. Next to him, Lance gasped as something fell on his nose, he looked up. It was raining.

Lance closed his eyes and kept his face upwards as more and more drops fell onto the planet’s surface. "God, I missed this," he whispered.

The two of them stood there in silence as the rain gained strength. The red paladin turned to stare at the dunes, thinking about those days back on Earth desperately searching for Shiro.

 

"Keith?" Lance asked, still not opening his eyes,

"Yeah?"

"I already asked some of the others, but not you. I want you guys to come meet my family when we get back."

Keith blinked. "I would like that."

"You promise?"  
"I promise. I’m sure they are great."

Lance lowered his face and smiled. "They are." Then he blinked and wiped his eyes, sniffing twice. "We should go back, or we’ll get sick."

Keith sneezed and then rubbed his nose. "I think I already am."

Lance laughed. "Sorry, sorry. My fault." Then he glanced at the castle in the distance. "Race you to the kitchen!" And he took off running.

It took the red paladin exactly three seconds to process what Lance had said and started running towards the castle.

_That’s cheating!_

 

* * *

 

"Today’s meeting is specially important as we will start planning what we hope will be the last battle against the empire," Allura announced.

"We will have to find a way to keep Zarkon distracted, if our attempts to beat him are proven useless, while attacking the druids and taking down three of the empire’s most important bases," Kolivan continued. "For that we’ll need any information the prince can provide," he added, refusing to look at Lotor.

"Former prince," Lotor corrected him. The leader of the Blade didn’t reply.

Allura decided to break the tension before it properly formed. "For that, we’ll need to split into five teams which must have the according skills to take down each enemy."

The first topic discussed was how to take down the bases, and it was decided that it could be done by the Blade by itself, and that they could travel ahead of time to make a coordinated attack. More details were discussed, and by the time that part of the plan was settled, it was too late to organise anything else, and it was decided that they would meet again the following morning.

 

* * *

 

The following day, the castle followed it’s usual routine, aside from the leaders leaving to finish discussing the previous day’s topics with the Blade.  
Two hours after having lunch, they met again like they had agreed to and got to planning the hardest part of the attack: defeating the Empire’s leaders.  
Halfway through the meeting, which consisted of many rejected ideas, Hunk left to the castle and came back with drinks for everyone, replying that they were made of a fruit from Segara when asked by Ezor, who said that the drink tasted familiar.

By the end of the meeting, the paladins and generals were assigned to one of the five teams and were left to wait for the preparations to be completed. What followed was two anxious days in which everyone tried to keep their usual routines. Tense silences stretched during the meals and the training room was always occupied. Allura and Lotor were always busy, fixing mistakes, improving tactics and organising everything. The plans to take the three bases were viable, and even if they were complex, they were few doubts about them not working. On the other hand, everyone was concerned about taking down the witch and Zarkon, and they members assigned to that mission spent all the time they could at the training room, until Shiro had to close it on the second day, so they wouldn’t exhaust themselves.   
The day of the attack was only twenty four hours away, and everything seemed to be coming together too quickly. It seemed that the Blade of Marmora either had already been prepared before the meeting, or had incredible organisation.

On the third day, they met again at the base, armours on and ships and lions ready to leave. Ezor, Acxa, Hunk and Pidge were in charge of taking over the two biggest galra bases, aside from central command, with the help of half of the blade’s agents. Most of the team was leaving to take over the druids, knowing that they were many and possessed powerful magic. And what felt like the hardest part of the mission was the responsibility of the former galra prince, the red and the former blue paladins, and Kolivan himself. It was a considerable risk deciding to keep the lions apart during the attack, but forming Voltron hadn’t worked before, and if anything, the Empire had surely found better ways to counter it.

  
"Are we even sure this could work?" Matt asked, after the last instructions were delivered.

The princess sighed. "We aren’t. But it has to."

They left the base.

 

* * *

* * *

  
_Preview_

_The witch smiled wickedly, and hissed, "Initiate stage 5." Kuron grunted and fell on his knees, clutching his head._

* * *

 

_Allura stared at her arm as her skin turned grey, breathing harshly. The hooded figures around them seemed to mock them in their silence._

* * *

 

_As the enemy lifted the sword, Lance swore he could almost see blood dripping from the handle. He unconsciously moved a hand to his chest, taking short, shuttering breaths._

* * *

 

_The general’s eyes widened in recognition, and he grinned. "Well, well, if it isn’t miss Xania. Regretting running away?"_

_She clenched her teeth, growled, and charged. She was going to show that man what a real fighter was like._

* * *

 

_In front of her was a replica of her living room, and a figure jumped up from the sofa, still holding a hot drink. She forgot how to breath as she stared at the man dressed in soft linen clothes instead of purple prisoner rags. And even though she new that she was standing in from of a traitor, she could do nothing about how hopeful her voice sounded as she whispered, "dad?"_


End file.
